via Mwonzora’s woes mount | The Herald January 20, 2015 by Fungai Lupande
MDC-T secretary-general Douglas Mwonzora, who is facing a theft of trust property charge involving US$15 000, yesterday revealed that he had another pending case in Rusape.
Mwonzora, who is jointly accused with his legal partner Joseph Terera (44), made the revelations while applying for a change of his remand date last Thursday which he said coincided with the Rusape case.
“I am one of the 24 accused in a Rusape case and the case is appearing on Wednesday,” he said.
“It was set down up to Friday so I am applying to have this matter remanded to an earlier date.”
Harare magistrate Mr Milton Serima remanded the matter to January 30.
Prosecutor Ms Sharon Mashavira alleged that in 2012, Mr Justin Matenda, who is a project manager at a local mining firm, obtained a US$200 000 loan from Ecobank that was supposed to be repaid within one year.
Matenda failed to pay back the money, resulting in him being sued by Ecobank in July 2014.
The court was told that an agreement was signed between Ecobank and Mr Matenda under which the latter would pay US$15 000 a month for 12 months.
Mr Matenda was represented by Tendai Toto from Mwonzora and Associates law firm, in which Terera is a partner.
Toto allegedly told Mr Matenda that all payments were to be done through the law firm’s Barclays Bank account.
On August 5, Mr Matenda deposited an initial US$15 000 into that account, which had Terera and Mwonzora as signatories.
The court heard that Mr Matenda continued to receive letters from Ecobank indicating that they had not received the money as per their agreement.
Investigations revealed that the money had allegedly been withdrawn by Terera and Mwonzora, who converted it to their own use.
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