BY CHARLES LAITON
THE High Court has dismissed an application for review filed by former Midlands governor, Jaison Machaya, who is accused of criminal abuse of office after unlawfully diverting over 1 000 stands which Gokwe Town Council had allocated to the Local Government ministry.
Machaya, who is charged alongside former Midlands provincial planning officer, Chisainyerwa Chibururu, is accused of having offered the diverted land to a company known as Striation World Marketing (Pvt) Ltd which in turn sold the stands to members of the public.
However, when the two men appeared before Gweru regional magistrate Charity Maphosa for trial, they made an application for acquittal at the close of the State’s case which was dismissed culminating in the current application for review by the High Court.
High Court judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda then deliberated on the matter and came to a conclusion that there was no reason for him to interfere with Maphosa’s decision since Machaya and Chibururu, still had an option to appeal against the magistrate’s findings.
“There is no likelihood of any harm befalling the applicants (Machaya and Chibururu) which cannot be corrected by way of appeal or review after judgment by the trial court. I am not persuaded that there are compelling reasons to interfere with the trial which is still in progress. In the result I order as follows; this application be and is hereby dismissed,” Justice Kwenda said in his judgment delivered yesterday.
