Controversial local business wheeler-dealer Wicknell Chivayo has made it publicly clear he wants his erstwhile local business partners, Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu, with whom he is locked in mortal combat the corrupt US$100 Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) tender to rot in jail: And so far he is winning.
After winning the subpoena case in the High Court last month, Chivayo got a further boost from the same court yesterday when it dismissed his partners-turned-bitter enemies application to have their fraud case referred to the Constitutional Court (ConCourt).
Chivayo walked free last month from Harare High Court after a judge dismissed a subpoena to summon him to testify in the corruption trial of Chimombe and Mpofu.
And yesterday the High Court dismissed Chimombe and Mpofu’s application to have their fraud case referred to the ConCourt, closing their potential escape route.
Chimombe and Mpofu are in jail over a dodgy US$7 million fraud regarding a Presidential Goats Scheme.
The two are accused of forging documents for their company, Black Deck Private Limited to secure a tender worth over US$7 million in a goat supply scam. Justice Pisirayi Kwenda firmly rejected their claims that their constitutional rights had been violated, ruling their arguments were frivolous and should have been initially settled at the magistrates court.
As a result, Chimombe and Mpofu’s trial will continue on February 10 next year.
This means their long stay in remand prison will be extended.The two were arrested in June.
Chivayo that month came out guns blazing against Chimombe and Mpofu, describing them as “serial extortionists” trying to extract money from him by falsely claiming they are owed millions from the corrupt US$100 million Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) tender which has caused uproar.
Chivayo said Chimombe and Mpofu are “serial extortionists who survive on manufacturing fake telephonic messages, fabricating videographic images, forging documents, and engineering voice recordings which they in turn use to blackmail unsuspecting businessmen”.
He said Chimombe and Mpofu must rot in jail, in what almost certainly appeared like some interference with due process and the wheels of the criminal justice system.
