admin
Yeukai Karengezeka Court Correspondent
Health Service Commission legal manager Wilson Matsika has appeared in court facing extortion charges after allegedly demanding US$1,000 from a former employee to approve his reinstatement without a further appeal after he won his Labour Court case against the commission.
Matsika (35) appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje who remanded him to May 10 on US$100 bail.
The State prosecutor Mr Anesu Chirenje alleged that on September 15, 2022, Godwin Takaniwa was dismissed from work as a result of a disciplinary hearing on allegations of misconduct at work.
He made an internal appeal against the decision of the disciplinary committee to the then Health Service Board and the appeal was turned down. He then appealed to the Labour Court and that was heard on 25 January this year.
While the case was at the Labour Court Matsika invited Mr Takaniwa to his office and offered to help him with the matter that was before the court so that he could get his job back. But he wanted Mr Takaniwa to offer money. Mr Takaniwa turned down the offer.
On February 19, the Labour Court ruled in Mr. Takaniwa’s favour and ordered that he should be reinstated without loss of salary and benefits. But Matsika was reluctant to action this court order.
He went on to demand US$1 000 from Takaniwa in return for not appealing against the Labour Court ruling noting that if Mr Takaniwa was reinstated, he would be paid more than US$1 000.
Mr Takaniwa was not pleased with the illegitimate pressure and he immediately reported the matter to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).
A trap was conducted on March 5 using US$300. However, Matsika refused to accept the US$300 saying it was way too little considering the favour he was going to do for Mr Takaniwa, and continued to demand US$1 000.
On March 20 he sent a message to Mr Takaniwa saying he had written the appeal papers and that he could come and collect them to give to his lawyers. Mr Takaniwa went to Matsika’s office on the same day and was told he had still demanded US$1000 to withdraw the appeal he was making to the Supreme Court.
Takaniwa negotiated on the amount and Matsika told him to bring US$600 as soon as possible and the balance of US$400 would be paid later.
Immediately, Takaniwa reported the matter to ZACC, resulting in a trap being done using US$600 trap money which led to the arrest of Matsika.
Online Reporter