No joy for former Mnangagwa top aide. President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s former aide Douglas Tapfuma’s bid for acquittal at the close of the State Case was thrown out yesterday after Harare regional magistrate Esther Chivasa ruled he has a case to answer.
Tapfuma, who is accused of abusing the name of the State Residencies Department to evade paying import duty on several cars, has been in remand prison since August last year.
He filed a two-fold application before Chivasa. He sought acquittal and bail on changed circumstances citing that since the State had closed its case, there would be no prejudice if he is released.
Both applications were dismissed. “At this stage, the State need not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that an offence was committed, but should raise a basis why the accused person must be put to his defence,” Chivasa ruled.
“It was not in dispute that accused person was a public officer and that he acquired paperwork for the purchase of the motor vehicles in question and there are witnesses who have testified on policies regarding the acquisition of vehicles in the State Residences Department.
“The accused person has issues that must be clarified, which if not, may lead to his conviction. The court found no changed circumstances justifying the release of the accused person on bail.”
Tapfuma will open his defence case on March 4. The State’s allegations are that Tapfuma purchased two personal mini-buses from South Africa on April 10, 2018, claiming they belonged to the government.
On April 17, the same year, he allegedly assigned Bonani Ganyane, an officer in the transport section at State Residences, to go to Beitbridge and facilitate the clearance of the two vehicles, misrepresenting that they were government vehicles.
Ganyane allegedly travelled to Beitbridge and after clearing the vehicles, he was instructed to hand them over to Vongaishe Mupereri, a legislator for Mbizo Constituency.
Source – Bulawayo24 News
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