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Daniel Nemukuyu Senior Reporter
The Constitutional Court has dismissed businessman Joel Sengeredo’s application for stay of prosecution on fraud charges, a development that leaves him exposed to a criminal trial.
Sengeredo, who was a Shooting Stars Football Club director, is alleged to have sold his semi-developed residential stand in Helensvale Township to two people. He sold the property to Mr Stanley Kasukuwere and Mr Itayi Walter Chirume in October 2008.
Sengeredo was challenging prosecution on the basis that his right to a fair hearing within a reasonable time was violated by the State’s delay in setting the case down for trial.
He also complained that his right to protection of the law had been violated.
Dismissing the application, Chief Justice Godfrey Chidyausiku said Sengeredo failed to prove the alleged breaches to the court.
He ruled that Sengeredo’s lawyers failed to lead evidence to prove the alleged violation of rights.
“The legal practitioner for the applicant did not appreciate fully what was required of him,” said Chief Justice Chidyausiku. “He only made submissions from the Bar and simply pointed to the length of the delay.
“He was obliged to call the applicant to testify to the extent to which, if at all, the cause of the delay was his responsibility or that of the prosecutor.
“He was required to place before the magistrate’s court evidence as to whether at any time before 28 February 2012, the applicant had asserted his right to a fair trial within reasonable time and even, more importantly, whether or not actual prejudice had been suffered as a result of the delay.
“The failure by the applicant’s legal practitioner to place evidence before the magistrate’s court, which evidence would have assisted this court in assessing the relevant facts in this case, was fatal.”
Sengeredo was arraigned before a magistrate on fraud charges in 2009 and prosecution was declined the same year.
In 2011, the same case was resuscitated and he was summoned to court.
That prompted him to file the constitutional application, arguing that his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time had been violated as had been his right to the protection of the law.
Sengeredo is alleged to have sold the residential stand to Mr Kasukuwere and Mr Chirume in one month for different prices.
Mr Kasukuwere, the managing director of Bosstan Marketing, reportedly paid US$62 000 as an initial deposit for the stand, whose cost was pegged at US$115 000. It is alleged that an agreement of sale was signed between Mr Kasukuwere and Sengeredo.
The State alleged that when Mr Kasukuwere asked for the title deeds to the stand, Sengeredo refused to hand them over and allegedly became evasive.
This prompted Mr Kasukuwere to investigate and he discovered that the same property had been sold to Mr Chirume, the director of MMC Capital in Harare.
It is alleged that in the same month that he sold the stand to Mr Kasukuwere, Sengeredo advertised the same stand through Highrise Real Estate and Mr Chirume was interested in buying it.
He met Sengeredo, who allegedly told him the stand was selling for US$90 000.
Mr Chirume paid US$18 500, while his friend Taurai Munikwa, who is based in Uganda, paid another US$30 000 through Sengeredo’s offshore account, it is alleged.
Mr Chirume later discovered through the Deeds Office that the same property was ceded by Sengeredo as collateral against a debt of US$50 000.
The matter was reported to the police, leading to Sengeredo’s arrest.
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