UPDATED: Harare Mayor Mafume granted bail at High Court

HARARE Mayor Jacob Mafume, who is being accused of parcelling out residential stands, has been granted $30 000  bail by High Court Judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero.

Mafume appealed to the High Court after he was denied bail by magistrate Bianca Makwande who said  he was likely to interfere with witnesses in the matter.

But Justice Chikowero ruled out that Makwande had misdirected herself by denying Mafume bail. He was ordered not interfere with witnesses, to  surrender his passport and to continue residing at his given residential address, as part of his bail conditions.

It is alleged that Mafume allocated residential stands to his sister Rotina Mafume and secretary at his law firm Rutendo Muvuti without following  due  process.

The State alleges that in March this year Mafume allegedly called housing director Admore Nhekairo asking him to allocate stands to  Rotina and Muvuti  but the  council had closed interviews for home seekers.

But Mafume allegedelly used his influenced responsible council employees to allocate the stands to the two.

Rotina and Muvuti were  allocated the stands valued at  $219 938 although they were not on the waiting list.