Story by Peter Chivhima
Harare businessmen Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu will have to stay a bit longer behind bars after their fraud case was postponed to the 22nd of this month.
Chimombe and Mpofu’s case in which they are accused of defrauding the government of more than US$7 million in a Presidential Goats Pass On Scheme continues to deepen and take new twists at the High Court in Harare with the session drawing a sizable number of people eager to follow the proceedings.
The matter was again this Thursday postponed to the 22nd of this month after the defence sought a postponement to next week indicating that they want to make a joint application for referral to Constitutional Court.
The accused will submit their application on Tuesday next week with the state saying the response will be available on the 14th of this month.
Their legal representative, Mr Ashiel Mugiya said, “Today, we requested the court to postpone the matter to enable us to bring our application to lighting to the judge and then to also save the other party with that court application. We felt that there is a need for our applicants, or rather our clients, to propose to applicants, clearly stating the constitutional issues that are arising in their cases, and then clearly elaborating what it is that they are seeking from the court. We place it before the court, serve the other party, and then the state will be able to respond to it. After that, there will be a date in which the judge will then basically rule whether or not there are constitutional issues, and if there are any, a referral will then be made.”
The duo was arrested in June this year by officers from the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission.
