FORMER Zimbabwe Miners’ Federation president, Trynos Nkomo recently skipped court to attend the Zanu PF annual conference in Masvingo where he donated five tonnes of maize and 800kg of beef.
Nkomo was last week brought to court in handcuffs for absconding the hearing in Beitbridge where he is facing eight counts of illegal gold mining.
He is jointly charged with his former mining partner, Sifanjani Moyo, for illegally extracting 210 tonnes of gold ore and processing it into gold without proper mining documents.
When he was brought to court on Tuesday, he was also facing an additional charge of duping Local Government permanent secretary George Mlilo of $6 000.
Mlilo alleges he paid Nkomo $6 000 for a mining claim in West Nicholson. He says sometime this year his son, Innocent, partnered Moyo and the two started working at the claim and discovered rich gold deposits.
Nkomo allegedly got wind of the discovery and went to the claim where he chased away Mlilo claiming the mine he had sold was at a different location.
He then partnered Moyo, but the deal did not last long with Nkomo rushing to the High Court to evict his partner from the mine.
However, both Nkomo and Moyo are accused of mining without permission. The pair will appear at the Beitbridge Magistrates’ Court today.
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Nkomo is not new to controversy and has in the past defrauded his mining partners including a Botswana investor. He once sent detectives from the Minerals Unit on a wild goose chase after he claimed to have been in a mining partnership with former Vice-President Joice Mujuru.
Nkomo was being investigated for externalising gold. He was found guilty and fined $200 for supplying false information. — news agencies
