GWANDA — The officer in charge of Fort Rixon police base, being charged with abuse of office after he served a mining company with a High Court provisional order directing it to stop its activities before obtaining gold from the same mine, was yesterday placed off remand.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
The development came after police repeatedly indicated they were still investigating the matter.
Inspector Alexious Munkuli (42) was not asked to plead to abuse of office when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate Douglas Chikwekwe yesterday.
Chikwekwe placed him off remand and advised him that the case would proceed by way of summons after the police completed their investigations on the matter.
Prosecutor Alexander Moyo told the court that on October 7, Munkuli was tasked with serving Fanuel Ganda of Rainy Day 58 Mine, who was illegally extracting gold at Triple Renaissance Mine in Shangani, with a High Court provisional order directing him to stop mining activities at the mine.
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In terms of the order, Ganda was ordered not to interfere with the mining operations of Triple Renaissance or Henfrik G Mine.
Soon after serving Ganda, Munkuli allegedly approached Joseph Tshuma, who is the chief operations and security officer at Triple Renaissance, and asked him to allow his partner, Trymore Sabelo Sibanda, to prospect for gold from the claim using a metal detector.
Sibanda was allegedly allowed into the mine.
It was the State case that on October 9, Sibanda got $300 worth of gold and was allegedly paid $50 by Munkuli, who then took the rest.
Munkuli allegedly took advantage of the situation to benefit from the mining activities illegally.
A report was made to the police, leading to his arrest.