Ex-RBZ official cleared

rbzzimbabwe2febSenior Court Reporter
The High Court yesterday acquitted a former Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe intelligence boss, Mr Joseph Banda, of 15 counts of fraud and two counts of impersonation. Mr Banda, who was deputy head of intelligence at RBZ, was in 2012 jailed for five years for the offences by regional magistrate Mr William Bhila, but Justices Francis Bere and Owen Tagu cleared him of any wrongdoing.

He was accused of fraudulently acquiring four generators, a motorbike, 15 knapsacks, a seed drill and five chains from the RBZ, worth US$42 000, after masquerading as a retired police senior assistant commissioner.

The State also accused him of impersonating a war veteran.
The acquittal came after Mrs Sharon Fero of the National Prosecuting Authority conceded that the lower court had erred in finding Mr Banda guilty.

Justice Bere ruled: “We have thoroughly interrogated the position of not supporting the conviction of the appellant in this case adopted by the State counsel.

“In doing so, we have been motivated by nothing, but our combined determination to avoid a further miscarriage of justice in this case.
“We are satisfied that beyond reasonable doubt that the steps taken by the prosecution are well informed in light of the inadequacies in evidence which characterised the proceedings in the lower court.

“It borders on mystery as to how the appellant was convicted on all the counts that were preferred against him. We find accordingly that the convictions are set aside and the appellant is found not guilty and acquitted.”

Last week, Mrs Fero filed notice conceding Mr Banda was wrongfully convicted.
Mr Banda was accused of misrepresenting that he was a senior police officer and a war veteran, hence the two counts of impersonation.
Mrs Fero said no steps were taken to disprove his defence that he was an undercover agent for the RBZ and the ZRP Gold Unit.

She said that the lower court should have used the provisions of Section 232 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act (Chapter 9:07) to subpoena ex-RBZ governor Dr Gideon Gono and Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri to disprove the him.

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