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Minister Mangoma's trial kicks off
Movement for Democratic Change
March 28, 2011
The trial of Hon. Elton
Mangoma, the Minister of Energy and Power Development kicked off
at the High Court in Harare today. Hon. Mangoma is facing trumped
up charges of abusing the public office as the Energy Minister.
The trial is
being heard before Justice Chinembiri Bhunu and it started with
the State calling its first witness, Justin Mupamhanga, the Permanent
Secretary in the Energy Ministry.
Hon. Mangoma
was arrested two
weeks ago and granted a US$5 000 at the High Court. However,
today he appeared at the High Court from Harare Remand Prison in
leg irons after he was arrested
on a separate charge on Friday and charged with criminal abuse
of duty as a public officer.
He was indicted to 18
July for trial for the new charge. It was only after the intervention
of Hon. Mangoma's lawyer, Beatrice Mtetwa that led to Justice
Bhunu ordering prison officers to remove the leg irons. Hon. Mangoma
is facing allegations of corruption arising from a fuel deal with
a South African company without going to tender. He is denying the
charges.
The minister will be
back at the High Court tomorrow for his bail hearing on fresh charges
that he abused public office by irregularly awarding a multi-million
tender to purchase electricity meters by the Zimbabwe Electricity
Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC), a subsidiary of Zesa.
Last week, Mtetwa lashed
out at the police and prosecutors for preferring to prosecute the
minister in instalments. "We believe that the latest arrest
is meant to deliberately subvert the High Court order with regards
to bail and that the arrest is clearly politically motivated to
ensure that the accused person is unavailable for political processes
that are going on in Parliament," said Mtetwa in reference
to the pending elections for the Speakership in the House of Assembly.
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