BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
ZIMBABWE National Road Administration (Zinara) officials, who are facing criminal abuse of office charges, yesterday had their application for review dismissed by the High Court.
A similar application was also thrown out by the lower courts.
The officials, Adam Zvandasara, a finance director at Zinara and Gilfern Moyo, who is a human resources director, had approached the High Court challenging the decision by Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna to place them on remand.
In the papers, Nduna is cited as the first respondent while Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi is the second.
Zvandasara and Moyo are facing four charges of contravening sections of the Prevention of Corruption Act.
They are out on bail.
High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero said: “The allegations against the applicants, as outlined, were simple. They were that on October 22, 2020, the applicants, acting in connivance, transferred the first, second, third and fourth complainants from the Zinara head office finance department to Skyline Tollgate, Eskbank Tollgate, Infralink and management accounting, respectively,” Chikowero ruled.
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“The transfers were prejudicial to each of the complainants because they were effectively applicants’ way of dealing with the complainants for supplying information to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) in an on-going investigation targeting the Zinara executive among whom the applicants were counted.
“When the accused persons transferred the complainants, they well knew that Zacc was investigating allegations of criminal abuse of office as a public officer as defined in section 174(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 and that the complainant was assisting the commission in the investigation and was likely to provide more information of other unreported corrupt activities at Zinara.”
Justice Chikowero said what was clear from the cases cited was that evidence was not essential in the determination by the remand court, of the existence of reasonable suspicion.
“What was before the magistrates court was not a trial. Incidentally, this disposes of the fourth ground for review. The second ground for review was not persisted with,” Justice Chikowero ruled and dismissed the application saying the grounds for review were grossly unreasonable.
“I see no merit in the argument that the learned magistrate was biased against the applicants. On its two feet, the request for remand form, plus the annexure thereto, provided a firm basis upon which to place the applicants on remand,” he said.
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