The High Court will on July 11 hear the arguments in the case of former Cabinet minister Priscah Mupfumira and her permanent secretary Ngoni Masoka who are being accused of criminal abuse of office.
High Court judges Pisirai Kwenda and Benjamin Chikowero
will hear the arguments on whether Justice Munamato Mutevedzi could proceed
with the trial which he presided over as the chief magistrate.
In the first count, prosecutors Garudzo Ziyaduma, Tendai Shonhayi
and Tafara Chirambira allege that Mupfumira and Masoka inappropriately used
US$90 000 belonging to NSSA to acquire a Toyota Land Cruiser vehicle for
Mupfumira.
In the second count,
the State alleges that the two failed to disclose the number of personal
vehicles that were allocated to Mupfumira as a minister and in the third
account, the State alleges that the two used NSSA funds to pay for Mupfumira
and her relatives to attend her daughter’s wedding in Cape Town, South Africa.
The trial commenced in 2021 when Justice Mutevedzi was
still chief magistrate.
Four witnesses had already testified for the State at the
time he was elevated to the High Court bench.
Mupfumira, who is being represented by Admire Rubaya and
Advocate Thabani Mpofu, has taken the position that the trial be restarted
before a new magistrate since Mutevedzi is now a judge.
The State represented by Ziyaduma, Shonhayi and Chirambira argues that legally
nothing stops Mutevedzi from completing the matter, adding that it would be in
the best interests of justice. Newsday
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