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Nyore Madzianike
Senior Court Reporter
THE State yesterday raised suspicion over High Court indictment papers of land baron accused, Fredrick Mabamba.
Mabamba is accused of illegally parcelling out pieces of land worth US$13 724 000 and nearly $875 billion belonging to Chitungwiza Municipality.
The papers were produced during a bail hearing presided by Harare regional magistrate Stanford Mambanje
Prosecutors now want to verify the papers’ authenticity with the upper court.
Mabamba, through his lawyer Mr Tapiwa Allen Munodawafa, produced the High Court indictments before Mr Mambanje, saying he was once charged with the same offence in 2018.
He claimed that he was served with the indictment papers for him to stand trial in a matter where Chitungwiza Municipality alleged that he had illegally possessed 56 000 square metres of land worth more than US$4,8 million in the dormitory town.
“He has not committed any offence since 2014 and has not committed a similar offence,” said Mr Munodawafa before he produced the High Court indictment papers.
“He has not shown any intentions to interfere as he fully cooperated with police upon his arrest.
“He intends to clear his name and he avers that he never made any misrepresentation to the beneficiaries as he acquired the land legally from Chitungwiza Municipality.
“The investigating officer said there is a public outcry, but the court should strike a balance between interest of justice and those of accused.
He has been given bail previously and did not violate the bail conditions.
“He has been indicted for trial over the land sometime in 2018.”
Miss Audrey Chogumaira, who is appearing for the State along with Miss Shella Mupindu, raised suspicion over the indicts and indicated to the court that they needed time to verify the authenticity of Mabamba’s papers.
Mr Mambanje then remanded the matter to today to allow the State to make verifications with the High Court and make their submissions in opposing Mabamba’s bail.
The State alleges that sometime in 1999, Mabamba, who was the deputy mayor and councillor for Ward 25 in Chitungwiza abused his office and parcelled out 15 stands without authority and pocketed US$13 724 000 and $875 billion.
He also allegedly created 200 residential stands which he sold to home seekers in St Mary’s worth US$600 000 and another 230 on wetlands in Zengeza 4 worth US$1 058 000.
It is alleged Mabamba created 57 stands in Zengeza 4 which he sold at US$3 000 each and a batch of 400 stands that he sold in Unit A.
The court heard that Mabamba illegally created a piece of land where he sold two stands for car sales in Unit B and pocketed US$44 000.
In Unit C, Mabamba allegedly sold 120 stands, while another 120 were allocated to people in Unit N and F, with one of the beneficiaries having exchanged the stand with his Toyota Gaia.
The court heard that Mabamba sold 76 stands in Unit G, 211 in Unit J and 151 in Unit K and a piece of land where Watershed High School was built.
Further allegations are that he sold 227 stands in Unit L worth US$1 589 000.
Mabamba allegedly parcelled out stands to his parents and created pieces of land where he built schools and allocated 150 stands to home seekers.
In Unit N, Mabamba is said to have allocated 284 stands and created a piece of land for a hospital plus another 1 671 stands which were under his housing cooperative named United We Stand Multi-Purpose.
He also allegedly sold 150 stands in Unit P, with the other pieces of land having been subdivided to accommodate a church stand.
In all the incidents, the beneficiaries were not given offer letters, according to the State.
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