Zimpapers Logo

Court Reporter
The court yesterday dismissed an application for refusal of further remand by four MDC-T officials accused of compiling illegal dockets against Government officials.
Thabani Mpofu, Felix Matsinde, Mehluli Tshuma (all former public prosecutors) and Warship Dumba (a former Harare councillor), are facing charges of impersonating the police, possessing articles for criminal use and breaching the Official Secrets Act.

Harare magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe dismissed the application on the basis that the State cannot be blamed for failure of trial to commence.

“State was willing and ready to proceed to trial from March 2013, but due to numerous applications by accused trial could not commence,” he said.

“It is clear that the reason trial failed to proceed cannot be attributed to the State. To accede to the accused application on the basis that trial cannot proceed would be unreasonable, therefore, the application is dismissed.”

In their application for refusal of further remand, Mpofu said he expected President Mugabe or security agents to summon him to submit their findings because a person they compiled a “docket” on was coincidentally under State investigation.

“One of the people we were investigating for corruption is currently under investigation by security agents and we are expecting to be called anytime by the President himself or security agents to submit our findings,” he said.

“The State cannot retain our passports as the last line of defence. The administration of justice will not be affected by the release of the passports considering we were unmonitored for almost a year.”

The prosecutor Mr Michael Reza said the application should be dismissed, indicating that the quartet had unwittingly entered a partial plea of guilty by admitting that they were investigating some people when they were not the police.

“The accused have entered a partial plea of guilty when they said they are expecting President Mugabe or security agents to summon them to submit their findings because a person they compiled a “docket” on was also under State investigation,” he said.

“The question remains, under what authority were the accused investigating that person.

“The charge the accused are facing is not unearthing corruption, but impersonating the police.”

The matter was remanded to July 31.

Mr Reza alleged that last year, detectives received information that the quartet was in possession of “dockets” they were privately compiling to discredit the judicial system.

They claimed that the police and the Attorney General had failed or refused to investigate corruption involving prominent Government officials.

It is alleged the four had documents on Police Commissioner General Augustine Chihuri’s background and another titled “Case for a full investigation into the Ministry of Lands — System of issuing offer letters September 1, 2009”.

A team of detectives went to Mpofu’s residence and found some of the documents, including a laptop and a pistol.

The State alleged that the suspects indicated that they were legal advisors to the then Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai and were researching on alleged corruption and criminal abuse of office and Comm-Gen Chihuri’s appointment.

Investigations revealed that the four were being bankrolled by the Institute for a Democratic Alternative for Zimbabwe.