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Fidelis Munyoro  and Yeukai Karengezeka
Marry Mubaiwa, the estranged wife of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, has been granted $50 000 bail coupled with stringent conditions, pending trial on a number of criminal charges.

She is facing charges of attempted murder and externalisation of foreign currency, money laundering and fraud.

Justice Pisirayi Kwenda granted Mubaiwa’s appeal for bail pending trial.

“The appeal against the decision of Harare regional court, denying the appellant bail pending trial, is upheld and the decision of the lower court is hereby set aside,” he said.

Mubaiwa also successfully applied for bail on charges of attempting to murder Vice President Chiwenga.

Justice Kwenda ordered Mubaiwa to surrender her diplomatic passport and title deeds to her Highlands home as surety.

She is required to report once a fortnight at Borrowdale Police Station, not to interfere with State witnesses and to reside at her Borrowdale Brooke mansion until the matter is finalised.

Granting Mubaiwa bail on both applications, Justice Kwenda castigated the lower court magistrate Mr Crispen Mberewere for making a decision influenced by policy considerations overriding the Constitution.

When he denied Mubaiwa bail, Mr Mberewere said the court should be alive to national policies that are relevant to the administration of justice and dealing with certain crimes.

He said a court dealing with anti-corruption matters must give voice to such national policies.

The State had opposed bail on the grounds that previously, suspects who were facing charges of corruption and granted bail and surrendered their passports still skipped the country.

Justice Kwenda rejected the trial magistrate’s view, saying the submission by the prosecution in the lower court, which was accepted and adopted by the court, constituted the kind of megaphone posturing not only misplaced and unfortunate, but which must be avoided by an officer of the court.

“It is not fair for a court official to mislead the public by blaming the bail system for the inertia in the fight against corruption,” he said.

The fight against corruption cannot be achieved through detention without trial or pre-trial incarceration.

“Accordingly, it is inappropriate for the State to argue for pre-trial incarceration as a matter of policy to deal with the problem of corruption,” said Justice Kwenda.

“Such a policy would be invalid due to inconsistency with the Constitution. The court a quo erred when it accepted the argument.”

Through her lawyer, Advocate Sylvester Hashiti, instructed by Mr Taona Nyamakura, Mubaiwa appealed for bail, arguing the State would have no problems in extraditing her from South Africa in the event that she crossed the border into that country, since her properties were already known and                identified.

He also argued that Mubaiwa was not a flight risk, since she could be detected by anyone in the event that she decided to leave the court’s jurisdiction.

Mubaiwa, in her bail appeal, argued that the State had no reason to deny her liberty, as the offences it alleged were committed through her companies, where she is only a director.

She said the State was supposed to charge the companies and not her.

Mubaiwa denied ever fraudulently attempting to register her marriage with VP Chiwenga, saying she could not have prejudiced him as they were already married.

But the State argued that Mubaiwa was facing serious charges that could earn her at least 25 years in jail or be ordered to repay twice the amount she allegedly prejudiced the State.

In her bail application on attempted murder charges, Mubaiwa said the allegations raised against her lacked credibility and circumstances surrounding the charges were doubtful.

The State, she argued, only had circumstantial evidence since the offence was committed when there were no witnesses.