Danisa Masuku, Court Reporter
WARD 26 Councillor Mpumelelo Moyo is back behind bars after his bid to challenge his conviction and sentence in a US$20 000 bribery case hit a snag at the Bulawayo High Court over irregularities in his appeal papers.
High Court Judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi struck the appeal matter off the roll and directed the defence to put its papers in order.
Moyo’s lawyer, Mr Tinashe Runganga of Tanaka Law Chambers, said the appeal papers had become complicated following changes in legal representation.
“There were some challenges with the record in the system. The appellant changed legal representatives several times,” said Runganga.
“The first lawyer filed a notice of appeal and grounds of appeal in February, but there was no signature. The second lawyer also filed the same and submitted heads of argument. When I was now representing him, I was asked to file grounds of appeal,” he said.
“The other grounds of appeal were therefore supposed to be removed from the record in the system, but that was not done.”
“So when we recently appeared, the Judge said he could not make head or tail of the case because there were a lot of submissions that were appearing on the record. So now we have to start the whole process afresh, hence he was sent back to jail. But we are still working on the matter,” he said.
Moyo was sentenced to 18 months in prison, by the Bulawayo Magistrates Court, with six months suspended, leaving him to serve an effective 12 months.
He was convicted of demanding US$20 000 from Labenmon Investments in exchange for facilitating the approval of a 5.6-hectare piece of land in Cowdray Park, where the company intended to construct a cement-mixing plant.
Prosecutor Mr Kelvin Guvheya told the court that Moyo, who chairs the council’s Finance and Development Committee, solicited the money from the company.
Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission officers arrested Moyo shortly after he allegedly received the money from company representative Tsitsi Nyathi at her house, following a trap set by the complainant.
According to the State, Nyathi had lured Moyo to her house to collect the US$20 000. Moyo allegedly claimed that 20 councillors had facilitated the land approval and each wanted US$1 000.
Moyo was initially represented by Mr Prince Butshe of Butshe and Partners, who filed grounds of appeal on his behalf. He later engaged Mr Nqobani Sithole before switching to Runganga.
