Online Reporter
Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
The protracted trial of business partners Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe is expected to resume today at the High Court.
Formally charged with fraud when the trial commenced in October last year, Mpofu and Chimombe have since employed an array of legal tactics to stave off the wheels of justice.
Their attempts to have the case referred to the Constitutional Court—on grounds of alleged violations of their constitutional rights—were met with firm rejection in December, a decision that effectively cleared the path for the trial to proceed.
The High Court, however, was not done scrutinising the pair.
In the interim, the accused sought bail pending trial, citing “changed circumstances,” but their hopes were swiftly dashed.
Justice Pisirayi Kwenda emphasised the gravity of the charges they face, underscoring the immense risk of flight, particularly given the potential 20-year prison sentence looming over their heads.
Mpofu and Chimombe stand accused of orchestrating a scheme to misappropriate millions of dollars from the Presidential Goat Pass-On Scheme — a programme intended to support rural livelihoods but now tainted by allegations of greed and betrayal.
The charges involve falsifying ZIMRA and NSSA compliance certificates purportedly issued under the name of Blackdeck Private Limited, a company revealed to have been deregistered from the NSSA system as far back as January 2016.
The forged documents, investigations revealed, bore QR codes and references linked to an entirely unrelated entity.
These fraudulent certificates, the State alleges, were submitted in a bid to secure a lucrative tender from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries, and Rural Development for the supply and delivery of goats under the scheme.
Despite the weight of the charges and the mounting evidence against them, Mpofu and Chimombe’s defence team has fought tenaciously, delaying proceedings at every turn.
On February 10, when the trial was scheduled to resume after months of setbacks, a bereavement in the family of one of the defence lawyers necessitated yet another postponement.
Today, however, the court reconvenes and all parties — the defence and State — are expected to present their cases.
