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Tendai Rupapa Senior Court Reporter
Two soldiers who were accused of trying to petrol-bomb the former First Family’s Alpha Omega Dairy Farm were yesterday set free by a Harare magistrate after spending two years on remand.

Silas Pfupa (39) and Solomon Makumbe (31) were facing charges of possession of weaponry for sabotage.

Pfupa and Makumbe are attached to 1 Field Regiment and Zimbabwe Intelligence Corps, respectively.

Through their lawyer Mrs Gamuchirai Dzitiro, the pair challenged their prosecution, arguing that it had not been authorised by the then Prosecutor-General, Mr Johannes Tomana.

They argued that the Prosecutor-General had the authority to authorise prosecution of suspects on terror-related charges.

In their case, former National Director of Public Prosecutions Mrs Florence Ziyambi appended her signature authorising the pair’s prosecution.

They argued that she had not delegated authority to exercise the PG’s duties.

In her ruling, Mrs Sandra Mupindu said: “There is no evidence that Mrs Ziyambi had been authorised by the Prosecutor-General to prepare the consent which she did.

“There is nothing to show that the authority had been delegated to her by the PG, therefore, the accused person’s prosecution was not authorised.”

Their alleged accomplice, Borman Ngwenya, was also acquitted last year by a different magistrate after he submitted in his defence that it was a military-sanctioned operation which was meant to capture the real perpetrator, Owen Kuchata.

Kuchata pleaded guilty to the charge when he appeared in court then and was jailed nine years.

It was the State’s case that on January 1, 2016, the quartet went to former president Mugabe’s rural home in Zvimba where they carried out reconnaissance, identifying suitable vulnerable points to sabotage.

The four held several meetings at Queens Hotel in Harare mapping strategies on how they would strike.

Police received a tip-off that the four were planning to bomb Alpha Omega Dairy’s processing plant and a tuckshop during the night.

Acting on the tip-off, police proceeded to the farm and laid an ambush about 100 metres from the quartet’s target.

At around 10pm, the detectives saw the men approaching the processing plant and immediately arrested them, it was alleged.