Pambuka jailed

Fidelis Munyoro

Chief Court Reporter

Former ZBC News anchor Oscar Pambuka has been jailed six years for fraud.

Pambuka and former Highfield legislator Psychology Maziwisa have been roaming wide and free for the past three months, instead of submitting to jail, after their appeal against conviction and sentence was struck off the roll in September last year.

After the High Court struck their appeal off the roll, the two were supposed to go to jail for 30 months each but instead they disappeared.

Pambuka’s luck ran out when he was this week convicted in another case of fraud on Wednesday and remanded in custody for sentencing.

His partner in crime, Maziwisa has not been accounted for and is still on a warrant of arrest.

After news filtered through that Pambuka has been convicted at Mbare magistrates’ court, the courts activated his warrant of arrest and yesterday he was brought before High Court judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda for a default inquiry and was committed to prison.

So he will now be serving the original term plus whatever he gets, if it is a prison term, in his latest sentence.

The two were convicted originally of two counts of fraud and each sentenced to six years and five months in prison.

However, they will only serve two years and six months each after the rest of the term was conditionally suspended.

The duo duped Zimbabwe Power Company of over $12 000 in a public relations deal.

Maziwisa and Pambuka were fraudulently awarded a tender to do public relations work for Zesa Holdings by former Energy minister Samuel Undenge at a time the power utility had its own functional public relations department.

Dissatisfied with the decision of the trial court, the two appealed to the High Court against both conviction and sentence, but the higher court struck the appeal off the roll on the basis that it was fatally defective and incurable at law.

On Wednesday Pambuka convicted at Mbare Magistrates Court on charges of attempting to defraud a Harare-based transporter of R36 000 after misrepresenting to him that he was Croco Motors director Mr Chingwena and wanted advance money to pay for shipment of his motor spare parts in South Africa.

Pambuka attempted to dupe Gibson Mazhangara, who runs Gimatar Logistics.

Ngonidzashe Mbauya and Elmore Mwenye, who were implicated in the matter, were cleared and acquitted of the charges.