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Fungai Jachi Court Reporter
The state yesterday set March 2 as the trial date of former MDC-T councillor, Friday Mleya (39). This was after Harare magistrate Mr Milton Serima, had warned the state that failure to provide Mleya with a trial date would result in him being removed from remand. Mleya who is currently out on $300 bail, isfacing charges of theft of trust property after he allegedly duped Blinkford Engineering company of $76 000 in a botched stand deal. Prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa, alleged that sometime in 2012, Blinkford Engineering applied for land from City of Harare.

Mleya who was a councillor at that time started assisting the company and eventually they were allocated stand number 19797 Salisbury township lands, Braeside in Harare.

It is alleged that the stand was measuring 14 000 square metres and Mleya purported to be the director of the company, Blinkford Engineering, during transactions.

The court heard that in May last year, Mleya was given a mandate to sell the lease on behalf of Blinkford Engineering.

Mleya successfully sold the lease to Pink Stallion (Pvt) Ltd for $300 000.

It is alleged that after signing the agreement Mleya received $100 000 through his Ecobank account number 0023147603750601.

The court heard that after receiving the money, Mleya paid $17 000 to City of Harare, $5 000 to the estate agent and $2 000 to a lawyer.

Instead of surrendering $76 000 to Blinkford Engineering, Mleya converted it to his personal use.

The company made a follow-up and Mleya failed to account for the missing $76 000.

The matter was reported to the police leading to Mleya’s arrest.