Mugabe to appear in court

Source: Mugabe to appear in court – NewsDay Zimbabwe April 24, 2018

FORMER President Robert Mugabe is tomorrow expected to appear at the Harare Magistrates’ Court to personally testify against a senior army officer accused of stealing his computers at Zimbabwe House.

BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE

Pepukai Zvakavapano, a Presidential Guard corporal, claimed two weeks ago that Mugabe gave him the computers as a donation, prompting the State to summon the former Head of State to testify in the matter since he was cited in court papers as the complainant.

Mugabe’s top aide, Wonder Enock Nyamurima, who was supposed to represent the former leader, had by yesterday not yet furnished the court with the power of attorney to enable him to testify in the case.

Allegations are that soon after Mugabe’s ouster last year, Nyamurima was instructed to store the former Head of State’s property at Zimbabwe House inside five containers in the polo grounds for security reasons.

The State alleges on April 3, Zvakavapano and an accomplice only identified as Marega, were tasked to provide overnight security duties at the property.

At around 2am, the duo allegedly broke into the containers and stole seven computer monitors, CPUs, keyboards, mouse, pads, 57 Inspur model laptops, 44 large and small Lenovo laptops, 18 HP printers, four Sahara and Mercer complete desktop computer sets, as well as two Xerox printers.

They allegedly hid part of the loot and dumped some after they were interrupted by other soldiers on duty.

Zvakavapano and his accomplice allegedly later collected their loot and sold to different people and computer dealers at giveaway prices in Harare’s central business district and at their areas of residence.

On April 10, detectives came across one of the stolen Inspur laptops on display at a shop in town.

The shop owners then spilled the beans after being interrogated, leading to Zvakavapano’s arrest and recovery of some of the computers.
Francisca Mukumbiri appeared for the State.