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Prosper Dembedza Court Correspondent
The State will on Thursday give a trial date  for Chitungwiza Municipality director of works David Duma and his alleged accomplice, director of housing Hazel Sithole, on their charges of criminal abuse of duty. The charges emanate from the allocation of a commercial stand worth over $30 000 to Metalhill Investments, allegedly without following due process.

Prosecutor Mr Lancelotte Mutsokoti said investigations in the matter would be complete by Thursday and Harare magistrate Mrs Victoria Mashamba deferred the matter to then.

The court heard that on May 6 this year, Metalhill Investments through one of its directors, Yeukai Mukucha, applied for a commercial stand in Chitungwiza to build a service station and directed the application to the town clerk.

It is alleged that the town clerk then referred the application to Sithole for processing and due consideration in accordance with the Urban Councils Act and Chitungwiza Town Council Housing policy,. The policy stipulates that any commercial stand to be sold should be subjected to a competitive bidding process.

After receiving the application, Sithole allegedly forwarded the request to Duma to plan for, inspect and avail suitable land for a service station. The court heard that Duma was supposed to invite the department of physical planning in the then Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing, the Environmental Management Agency and the Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority to assess the suitability of the site.

After the assessment, he was expected to submit a report on the findings to Sithole and write a memorandum stating whether the land was available and suitable for the construction of a service station. It is the State’s case that Duma did not have the land inspected for its suitability. Instead of following due process, Duma allegedly generated a memorandum to Sithole allocating stand 10606 in St Mary’s.

Sithole, the State alleged, was also supposed to advertise the stand twice in a local newspaper and invite competitive bids but did not do so.