CENTRAL Intelligence Organisation (CIO) deputy director Kizito Gweshe has been accused of abusing his office by causing the arrest of a lawyer to stop the latter from representing his client who was involved in a property wrangle with his firm.
BY CHARLES LAITON SENIOR COURT REPORTER
Gweshe and Rogerio De Sa are co-directors of Christmas Gift (Private) Limited, which is at the centre of a $7, 4 million land wrangle after it was purchased by the National Social Security Authority (NSSA) in Gweru two years ago.
The accusations were raised yesterday during court proceedings by Admire Rubaya, who is representing Harare lawyer Norman Bvekwa who is charged alongside his client Wilfred Edward Nyambo.
The two are accused of making misrepresentations to NSSA that allegedly caused prejudice of good administration of Christmas Gift.
Nyambo is represented by Beatrice Mtetwa.
While cross-examining Gweshe, Rubaya said Bvekwa had not committed any crime when he wrote correspondences to NSSA acting on his client’s instructions.
Rubaya said Gweshe’s “verve to flex his muscle” had seen Bvekwa behind bars.
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“I put it to you that you are the one who caused accused one’s (Bvekwa) arrest by flexing your muscle as the deputy director in the President’s Office in order to silence him from representing his client, the second accused person (Nyambo),” Rubaya asked.
Gweshe, however, told the court he had never interacted with Bvekwa before.
His response invited more questions from the defence as Rubaya sought to convince provincial magistrate Tendai Mahwe that Bvekwa’s arrest was “malicious”.
According to the State papers, Gweshe owned a piece of land which he intended to demarcate for residential purposes.
Apparently, NSSA showed interest in the land and when negotiations between the two parties had reached an advanced stage, Nyambo became aware of the deal and approached De Sa informing him he wanted 15% of the sales of the land.
On October 16 2012, Nyambo approached Bvekwa and they allegedly wrote a letter to NSSA claiming they owned 100% shares of Christmas Gift in the name of New Christmas Gift (Private) Limited.
The State alleges the two men wrote the letter in a bid to stop all the transactions involved in the purchasing of the land.
It is further alleged on October 30 of the same year, Nyambo and Bvekwa again wrote another letter to NSSA claiming they now owned 15% of shares of Christmas Gift which was on offer for sale.
The two alleged contradicting statements by Nyambo and Bvekwa resulted in NSSA putting the deal to a halt as it wanted to verify the claims.
Mahwe then postponed the matter to April 14 this year.
