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PG wants Chidakwa appeal dismissed

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Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi has approached the High Court seeking an order to dismiss former Mines minister Walter Chidakwa’s application for review

BY CHARLES LAITON

Prosecutor-General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi has approached the High Court seeking an order to dismiss former Mines minister Walter Chidakwa’s application for review of his criminal abuse of office trial.

In January, Chidakwa approached the High Court seeking an order to stop his trial at the Harare Magistrates’ Court pending a determination of his review application, but has not pursued the matter, prompting Hodzi to seek its dismissal.

The ex-Cabinet minister was arrested in 2017 on allegations of criminal abuse of office after he appointed then Mines ministry secretary Francis Gudyanga as the sole board member of the Minerals Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ).

In his earlier application, Chidakwa said he was seeking a review of a Harare magistrate’s decision to throw away his application to stop State attorney Zivanai Macharaga from prosecuting his case.

However, Hodzi’s representative Richard Chikosha recently filed an affidavit urging the High Court to dismiss Chidakwa’s application.

“On January 7, 2019, the first respondent (Chidakwa) made an application for review under case number HC70/19 and served it on the applicant (PG) on the same date. The application did not have the court aquo’s record of proceedings and it was only availed to the applicant on February 1, 2019 and the applicant filed his notice of opposition on February 11, 2019 and served it on the respondents on the same day,” he said.

Chikosha further said after receiving the notice of opposition, Chidakwa did not file an answering affidavit or set down the matter within a month of having been served with the PG’s papers.

“It appears the first respondent is not desirous to prosecute his application for review and that the application was simply made as a way of trying to frustrate the due administration of justice. Wherefore, it is prayed that the review application filed by the first respondent on January 7, 2019 be dismissed for want of prosecution,” he said.

The matter is pending.