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Senior Court Reporter
The trial of MDC-T spokesperson Douglas Mwonzora in a case in which he is facing charges of theft of trust property dating back to 2006 has been postponed to January 16 next year. Mwonzora yesterday appeared before regional magistrate Ms Fadzai Mthombeni, who deferred the matter after his lawyer Mr Eric Matinenga raised preliminary issues arguing that the State was unnecessarily splitting Mwonzora’s charges which were based on the same circumstances.
Ms Mthombeni gave the State one last chance to allow it to put its house in order.
She said the State should have a clear position on the charge or charges it preferred against the accused person.
She, however, expressed concern with the delay on the State’s part to commence the trial after the matter was previously referred to the Constitutional Court, on the basis that prosecution had failed to commence trial within a reasonable time.
Mwonzora’s lawyer said when the matter last appeared on December 10, the State preferred a single charge against Mwonzora, but later added another count following some amendments.
Mr Matinenga said trial could not proceed with the charges structured in such a complex way.
He also said that the transactions were done using the Zimbabwean dollars and the exchange rate by the State was not clear.
The complainant in this case is Everson Dandadzi.
The State alleges that Mwonzora failed to reimburse funds to Dandadzi, following an aborted sale of a house in Mabelreign.
It is alleged Stephen Chitongo bought a piece of land, which was valued at Z$4 billion and made two separate cheque payments.
Online Reporter