GOKWE-NEMBUDZIYA legislator Justice Mayor Wadyajena and Cottco officials were yesterday removed from remand by the court when it granted their application for refusal of further remand after ruling that their arrest was only to allow the State and Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate the matter.
Harare regional magistrate Mr Taurai Manwere ruled that there were inordinate delays in completing the investigations, which ZACC had promised to complete within a month of their initial court appearance.
Wadyajena, who was jointly appearing in court with Cottco bosses Pius Manamike, Maxmore Njanji, Chiedza Danha and Fortunate Molai on fraud, money laundering and concealing a transaction from a principal charges, can still be summonsed to court to be prosecuted after completion of investigations.
Mayor Logistics owned by Wadyajena and Danha’s Pierpoint Moncroix were also being charged.
The charges centre on allegations that the accused diverted Cottco funds meant for bale ties to buy a fleet of trucks from an American company, the trucks now being in the Mayor Logistics fleet. In his decision to remove Wadyajena and his co-accused from remand, Mr Manwere said he considered the extent of delay in investigations and whether the delays were as a result of someone’s fault.
Mr Manwere also said that he considered the complexity of the matter and whether removing them from remand had adverse effects on national interest.
“This is a clear case where application for refusal for further remand can be granted. This is despite the fact that the remand form request made it clear that investigations were going to be completed in one month, that is, in August and September 2022”.
The magistrate said the decision to deny further remand also rested on the problems of getting authorities in other countries to provide information or find out information for the Zimbabwean authorities, what is known as mutual legal assistance.
“What is outstanding is the mutual legal assistance and the State made it clear that without evidence to be obtained through the mutual legal assistance there is no case. The State also indicated that they had not received a response from the request for mutual legal assistance.
“Without it, basically it means that the State does not have a case. In other words, the State and ZACC arrested the accused to make investigations,” he said.
Mr Manwere also said that the State conceded that it harbours no fears that the group will abscond.
Wadyajena and his co-accused jointly mounted an application for refusal of further remand arguing that there was no docket sufficiently ready for their prosecution.
The State led by Mr Kennedy Madekutsikwa, had unsuccessfully argued that the delay in furnishing the then accused with a trial date arose from the need to wait for authorities in three other countries to respond to requests for mutual legal assistance.
Mr Madekutsikwa said it would be prejudicial for Wadyajena and his co-accused to be removed from remand as their case was of public interest.
But he concurred that the State’s case against Wadyajena and his co-accused heavily depended on the extra-territorial investigations.
“Our challenge is that we are not the ones to dictate on when the response we seek comes. This is the only thing that is outstanding in this matter.
“We assure the court that as soon as we get the responses that we are waiting for, the accused will be furnished with a trial date and the matter will be brought to finality. We will suffer prejudice as this is a matter of national interest,” said Mr Madekutsikwa.
“The citizens need to see that justice is done. If accused are released, a wrong signal would be sent to the citizens of this country. We need to see the matter to finality while the accused are on remand. There is no fear that they will abscond since they are on bail. The accused are said to have transacted with three jurisdictions and without evidence from the three jurisdictions, we have no case.
“That evidence will show where those funds went and the purposes of the funds. That actually forms the basis of the charge the accused are facing and without that evidence, the case will fall.” – The Herald
