Zimpapers Logo

Court Reporter

Registrar-General Clement Masango yesterday applied for relaxation of his bail conditions saying he wants to travel to his farm to monitor operations since agriculture was his only source of income after being suspended without pay and allowances.

Masango was recently suspended by the Public Service Commission (PSC) pending trial on two counts of criminal abuse of office as a public officer.

The charges arose after he allegedly instructed the Central Mechanical and Equipment Department (CMED) to buy a double cab and six single cab trucks without Cabinet approval, before using the vehicles at his farm.

Upon being granted bail, Masango was ordered to pay $10 000, surrender title deeds to his Borrowdale home and not to travel more than 40km outside Harare.

In his application for relaxation of the bail conditions, Masango said he intended to travel to Mt Darwin to see his mother and pass condolences to his relatives following the death of his kith and kin.

Said his lawyer: “Several friends and relatives passed on and has not been able to attend funerals or visit grieved families to pass his condolences. He is even failing to visit his mother in Mt Darwin.

“Variance of the bail condition will also allow applicant, who does not have source of income, to visit his farm to make sure his operations are in place and make a living from there.

“This will allow him to visit his mother and relatives to pass condolences for those who are deceased.”

The State led Mr Teddy Kamuriwo opposed Masango’s application saying he intended to evade the jurisdiction of the court.

Mr Kamuriwo told the court that the State intends to furnish Masango with a trial date on a separate matter in which he is facing a corruption charge.

He said the State was now in possession of the full docket and was considering the dates for trial.

“The State is opposed to the application as he is on a fishing expedition because when these conditions were given and arrived at by court, it was after assessment of seriousness of the offence and position of accused at that time.

“The conditions were made to make sure he is in the jurisdiction of the court,” he said.

The State added that Masango was not sincere in his application since it came two months after he was placed on remand.

“He had time to seek authority from (the) investigating officer, which he did not do. He just wants to flee from jurisdiction of court. Investigations are not yet complete and he would have been given trial date if they were complete.

“Witnesses are many in this matter and they are all in different provinces. Nothing was put on record to prove that he has relatives who died. We have received one of the dockets on one of his counts and it is being perused for considering dates for his trial,” said Mr Kamuriwo.

Magistrate Trinos Utahwashe is expected to make a ruling on July 10.