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Fidelis Munyoro
Chief Court Reporter
Former Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Minister Petronella Kagonye, (pictured), will remain in jail after the High Court yesterday dismissed her bail pending appeal.
Kangonye was appealing against conviction and sentence for stealing 20 laptops meant to benefit schools but the court said she was unlikely to succeed.
The former minister was in June this year slapped with an effective 16-month jail term for stealing 20 laptops in a corruption case linked to criminal abuse of public office, and has launched an appeal to the High Court and applied for bail.
But on Monday the High Court ruled that the bail bid was devoid of merit.
The regional magistrate presiding over the trial after convicting her set a sentence of 36 months, with 12 months suspended on condition of future good behaviour, and a further eight months were suspended on condition that she restitutes US$10 000 equivalent for the 20 laptops that she stole. This left her to serve an effective 16 months in jail.
Kagonye was ordered to pay back the money on or before August 31 this year, but failed to meet the deadline. But she, however, successfully sought for an extension of time to reimburse the money.
The former minister’s wish for bail pending appeal failed the legal test before Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, who could not be convinced that she has prospects of succeeding on appeal against conviction and in any case the court was ready now to hear the appeal, so there was not going to be much delay.
“In this case, I conclude that the touted prospects of appeal are fanciful and unlikely to carry the day at the determination of the applicant’s appeal,” said the judge. In any event the applicant failed to make a firm commitment that she will abide by the sentence if her appeal does not succeed.”
The judge noted that Kagonye’s appeal was ready to be heard on the merits and the court was ready and available to hear the matter without delay.
“The issue for determination is very narrow. Judgement is not likely to be delayed. In the result I order that the application be dismissed.”
Kagonye received 20 laptops from the State as a donation not for her personal benefit but for the purpose of distribution to deserving schools in her political constituency.
The intended schools were named by her in her request for the donation and listed in the handover form signed on her behalf.
But in her defence Kagonye sought to argue that although the laptops were released at her written request made on behalf of her constituency and indeed subject to the terms of the written trust agreement, she was not privy to the agreement because it was signed by her brother, Evans, who received the laptops on her behalf.
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The defence was rejected. Justice Kwenda found that the narrow issue to be determined on appeal is whether that defence was correctly rejected.
“The chances are that the appeal court will find that in either case the applicant had the implied duty to deal with the laptops in a manner that ensured the laptops reached the intended beneficiaries and that such beneficiaries are known,” he said.
The judge said in the likely event that the conviction is confirmed on appeal, it was unlikely that the court, exercising appellate jurisdiction, will interfere with the trial court’s exercise of its discretion in sentencing.
“The court is not likely to interfere, on appeal with the trial court’s decision to incarcerate the applicant who, at the time of committing the crime, was an honourable member of Parliament who abused trust property destined for the less privileged,” said Justice Kwenda.
“The appellant has not convinced me of any misdirection in assessing the sentence or that the sentence is disturbingly inappropriate or so severe as to induce a sense of shock.”
In sentencing Kagonye, the trial court said it could have opted to settle for community service as her punishment, but noted that such a penalty would trivialise the offence and send a wrong message to the community in relation to how corruption cases involving public officials were handled.
Kagonye was facing charges of failing to account for the 20 laptops donated to her in 2020.
The laptops had been donated by the then Minister of Information Communication and Technology, Postal and Courier Services, Supa Mandiwanzira, through the e-learning project targeted to benefit schools in Goromonzi South Constituency.
After the 20 laptops were donated by Potraz they were collected by Kagonye’s brother, Evans, on her behalf.
Officials from the donor, the Postal and Telecommunications Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe, made follow-ups on the donation and Kagonye failed to account for the computers leading to her arrest.
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