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Munyaradzi Musiiwa, Midlands Correspondent
FORMER Midlands Provincial Affairs Minister Jason Machaya’s judgement on criminal abuse of office charges has been deferred to September 21 after he failed to turn up due to illness.
Machaya who is out on $1 000 bail and facing allegations of unlawfully allocating and disposing of State land, was expected to appear before provincial magistrate, Ms Charity Maphosa on Monday.
The former minister is arguing that he acted in delegated authority in his capacity as Minister of State.
The State’s case is that the accused, intentionally allocated State land totaling 17 799 stands to land developers which was inconsistent with his duties.
Prosecutors say Machaya did not have any lawful responsibility to allocate State land to the said developers and entities, a lawful responsibility of the Minister of Local Government and Public Works. The accused person, the court heard, further received 1 791 commonage stands from the said land developers and entities which constituted 18 percent of the total stands on the allocated State land.
It is further alleged that Machaya sold 1 185 of the commonage stands which was also inconsistent with his duties as the stands can only be allocated and distributed by the Local Government Minister.
The accused person is also alleged to have also allocated 192 commonage stands to the Apostolic Christian Church of Zimbabwe (ACCZ) when he did not have lawful right to do so. Mr Clemence Chimbari appeared for the State.
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