Source: JUST IN: Chivayo acquitted of $5.6m ZPC fraud | The Herald March 22, 2019
Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Harare businessman Wicknell Chivayo has been acquitted of a $5,6 million fraud charge in a botched Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) solar project deal after the High Court ruled that charges were contrived and properly excepted to.Chivayo had approached the higher court challenging the magistrates’ court decision to dismiss his application excepting to the charges on the grounds that they did not disclose an offence.
In a judgment delivered today Justice Owen Tagu ruled that the charges, “apart from being suggestive of a skirmish, a mere witch hunt and a fishing expedition it tells more of a hidden hand or mala fides intention in the institution of the criminal proceedings brought about by the State in the circumstances.”
The judge also noted the decisions of two different judges of the same court in separate sittings and dealing with different issues but relating to a similar cause of action concurred on the lack of merit in the criminal case. This, he said, was no coincidence.
“Rather, it demonstrates the extent of common acceptance that the criminal case is at best a causa non grata, a high sounding nothing,” said Justice Tagu in his scathing judgment.
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Hon Hwende must be allowed to do his work
COMMENTS
Takazvitaura kare izvi, kuti kutamba nefungwa dzemadofo uku. Vakomana vechidiki vose ava vari kumora mari denyika vavete are just runner-boys of zanu pf big-fish. So, nothing will happen to them unless one used to be a runner-boy of the Jonso’s & Kasukuwere’s. Otherwise, mufana anenge angofarisa zvake “AKAKISA” babby ra shef. Saka anenge achida kungoratidzwa chete kuti shando dzavakuru hadzibatwi – nothing about pursuing corruption in Zim at all. How can corruption fight itself? Zanu pf = Corruption; isn’t it?
Chivayo can now go to Chicken Inn and grow a bit bigger
So Chivayo was given US$5.6M of tax-payers money which disappeared down the gurgler. The Court have now decided that Chivayo did not defraud, i.e. he received the money legally. The Judge has then blasted the government for acting in bad faith by bringing a prosecution against Chivayo that is totally devoid of merit. In other words good money thrown after bad.
What I want to know is who in government is taking responsibility for this fiasco. It’s totally unacceptable.