FORMER State Security minister Didymus Mutasa has been accused of using his political influence when he was still in government to cause the arrest and ultimate incarceration of Chegutu district administrator, Makanzwei Jecheche, on a bribery charge.
BY CHARLES LAITON
This emerged last week when Jecheche was acquitted by two High Court judges, who concurred during his appeal hearing that the handling of the matter was politically influenced.
Jecheche, who had been slapped with an 18-month jail term for receiving a bribe from a Chegutu farmer, Honest Mushangwe, to facilitate processing of an A2 offer letter, was acquitted after the judges raised a red flag over Mutasa’s involvement. The court heard that after paying the “bribe money” to Jecheche, Mushangwe drove to Harare, where he reported the matter to Mutasa.
“While anyone must feel free to report to anyone in authority whom he feels is capable of dealing with the matter according to law, it has not escaped this court’s attention that the complainant left Kadoma and decided to report to a senior political figure in the form of one Didymus Mutasa ,who was then Minister of State Security,” Justices Judge President George Chiweshe and Charles Hungwe said.
“One wonders why the complainant [Mushangwe] felt it was only this man [Mutasa] who could handle the apparent solicitation for a bribe from the complainant. Complainant could have made known his disgust at the appellant’s alleged demands to the local police station in Chegutu before embarking on his journey to Harare,” the court said.
“He alleges that the trap money was planted (in his office) in an elaborate ploy to dislodge him from his politically influential position of district administrator at the height of internal contradictions within the ruling political party, Zanu PF.”
The judges also slammed the manner in which the trap was conducted by police, adding at times the law enforcement agents, in a bid to ensure success of the trap, “would go to any extent to ensure this at the expense of the truth”.
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“When the appellant (Jecheche) recites the political ploy to remove him from his office by this means, it is difficult to dismiss this defence as not reasonably possibly true . . . The verdict of the court aquo (lower court) is altered to read “not guilty and acquitted”.
