The trial of former Chitungwiza town clerk Godfrey Tanyanyiwa, charged with corruption and fraud, including swindling the local authority of $718 753, kicked off at the Harare Magistrates’ Court yesterday.
Tanyanyiwa, who is also being accused of renting out his personal property in Chisipite, Harare, to Chitungwiza Municipality’s director of urban planning Conrad Muchesa, for which council paid him $1 300 in monthly rentals for five months, pleaded not guilty to all the 10 counts when he was arraigned before regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya.
In his defence, Tanyanyiwa dismissed as “just malicious, frivolous and vexatious” accusations that sometime in September 2010 he caused council to transfer $80 000 into Floburg Real Estate’s bank account on the pretext of paying for the servicing of Nyatsime stands when he was partly settling the purchase of his Chisipite house.
He said he had applied for a loan of $80 000 from council to pay for the house and furnished the finance director, Joshua Munyepa, with documentation relating to the property, among them, the agreement of sale and copies of title deeds.
“Accused denies ever instructing any of the signatories to indicate that the $80 000 was for council business or that it was for servicing Nyatsime stands,” reads Tanyanyiwa’s defence outline. “The accused did not witness the writing of the Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) form and signing of them, neither was he shown the same before or after the signing, meaning he never participated or contributed with regards to the content of the RTGS which is in question.”
Tanyanyiwa was adamant that he had applied for a loan payable before December 31 and was not personally involved in its processing and approval by the council.
He told the court that some of the charges levelled against him were lies peddled by one Takesure Kudakwashe Mudiwa who was “trying to employ all tactics in the book” to save his employment. Tanyanyiwa said he never corruptly concealed his personal interest in the lease of his house, but he had helped out Muchesa after he was evicted from his former employer’s flat in Marondera.
On another count, the State alleged that on dates unknown, Tanyanyiwa collected $85 000 from council coffers through an unnamed employee from Floburg Real Estate which he later converted to his own use. He denied the charge as frivolous. The trial continues today.
