The State has been accused of taking Francis Gudyanga, the former secretary in the ministry of mines for a ride as the prosecutor in his matter, Thabani Mpofu failed to show up in court without giving proper reasons and documentation as to why prompting the matter to be further remanded.
The state led by Veneranda Munyoro claimed that Thabhani Mpofu is in Egypt on official business but no evidence was tendered before court to substantiate the claims.
Gudyanga has been on remand for over a year now and he has given notice of an application for refusal of further remand before regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya on July 8.
Through his lawyer Norman Mugiya, Gudyanga said the matter has been appearing in the trial court for over 5 times and on all occasions there have been postponements instead of trial kicking off.
‘’All the postponements were made in the interest of the state and there were no genuine reasons’’. Said Mugiya
‘’It is clear that the docket for the matter is not with the state and thus the state is not taking this case seriously,’’ he fumed.
Mujaya was clearly not pleased with the manner in which the matter was being handled as there was no correspondence between the defense and state counsel which was in turn prejudicing the accused person.
Allegations are that during the period extending from September 2014 to December 2015, Gudyanga, acting in his capacity as the secretary for Mines and sometimes as the board chairperson of Mineral Marketing Corporation of Zimbabwe (MMCZ), misrepresented to MMCZ that the parastatal pays $1 6 29 500 to Glammer (Pvt) Ltd, a foreign company through a local agricultural company, Pedstock which produces irrigation equipment and fertilisers.
Gudyanga is alleged to have further misrepresented that the money be accounted for as dividends due to the stakeholder, in this case the government of Zimbabwe.
The State alleges MMCZ acting on the accused’s misrepresentation released the $1 629 500 to Pedstock when in fact the money was not being paid to the government as dividend, but for a private arrangement which had nothing to do with the parastatal.
