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Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
FORMER Harare City Council finance director Stanley Ndemera and chamber secretary Charles Kandemiri now serving effective six year sentences for corruptly selling Mount Pleasant Sports Club and golf course, have had their applications for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence rejected.
The two were convicted and jailed for an effective six years each on charges of criminal abuse of office.
They sought leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence, but Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, who presided over the separate applications by the two, found no merit in either and threw them out.
Since the trial judge rejected their leave to appeal, the two have no automatic right of appeal, but they can still apply to the Supreme Court to see if the judges there are willing to hear an appeal.
But the Supreme Court can refuse to hear their appeal.
In the first application by Ndemera the judge stated:
“It is my finding that the applicant (Ndemera) has no reasonable prospects of success on appeal.
“In addition to that his intended appeal is not bona fide because he does not intend to retract, on any stated lawful basis, any of the admissions he made at the trial leading to his conviction,” said Justice Kwenda.
The judge dismissed Kandemiri’s application on the same grounds that he has no prospects of success on appeal.
Ndemera and Kandemiri were charged alongside former mayor Herbert Gomba and town clerk Hosea Chisango.
These two co-accused were acquitted on the basis that their involvement in the commission of the offence was minimal such that no criminal liability could be attached to them.
In discharging the two, Justice Kwenda noted that they only signed the agreement of sale as a matter of policy because their assumption was that everything was done aboveboard.
The trial court heard that Ndemera and Kandemiri sold the council-owned Mt Pleasant Sports Club in Vainona, including the golf course, without following procedure.
Their actions, the judge ruled, were deliberate.
The stand was sold to Hardspec Investments for $23 923 340 while the club was quoted at US$2,3 million.
Online Reporter