Ex-council finance chief gets extra 10yrs in jail

Fidelis Munyoro

Former Harare City Council finance director Stanley Ndemera’s misery continues after he received an extra 10 years in jail for facilitating the illegal sale of three commercial stands in Harare, taking his total to 16 years.

Both his convictions involve trying to sell off sports and recreation facilities run by sports clubs on land leased from Harare City Council: the Mount Pleasant Sports Club and golf course for the earlier conviction and the Old Hararians Sports Club in the latest conviction.

Ndemera, the former acting finance director, was last month convicted along with Emmanuel Mutambirwa, the valuation and estate manager on charges of criminal abuse of office for the Old Hararians deal.

But Justice Benjamin Chikowero postponed sentencing to allow both the defence and prosecution lawyers to address the court in terms of the new sentencing guidelines and also to consider the council impact assessment report.

Yesterday, the two appeared before Justice Chikowero for sentencing and were jailed 10 years each. 

This brings Ndemera’s jail term to 16 years as he is already serving a six-year term of imprisonment on another corruption case. 

Ndemera and Mutambirwa facilitated the sale of the land, which was under an existing lease agreement with the Old Hararians Sports Club. The sales also contravened the local authority’s 2005 resolution prohibiting the sale of land without a public tender process.

In this case, the two failed to secure an environmental impact assessment report and institute proper change of reservation procedures. They did not comply with the notification requirements demanded by the Urban Councils Act. 

At first, four council executives were charged, but former Harare mayor Hebert Gomba, who was the first accused, was discharged at the close of the State’s case, while Daniel Usingarohwe, the fourth accused, was acquitted after a full trial.

The other two were convicted after the prosecution proved that they flouted the law in several ways, including selling land that was under an existing lease agreement, disregarding a 2005 council resolution that prohibited such disposal without going to tender, and selling land with no environmental impact assessment.

 The stands were sold to Optel Enterprises and Leanforth Investment.

Early this month, Ndemera along with former chamber secretary Charles Kandemiri had their appeal against conviction and six-year jail terms imposed on them over their attempt to sell Mount Pleasant Sports Club and golf course to a private developer thrown out for lacking merit.

The two had approached the Supreme Court challenging both conviction and sentence on charges of criminal abuse of office. 

However, after hearing submissions from both the defence and prosecution lawyers, a three-judge appeals panel of Justice Lavender Makoni, Justice Felistus Chatukuta and Justice Hlekani Mwayera, unanimously rejected Ndemera and Kandemiri appeals, without giving immediate reasons which will follow later.