BY Nunurai Jena
Former President Robert Mugabe yesterday failed to turn up in court in Chinhoyi, where he was expected to testify against four of his workers who allegedly stole close to a million dollars from his rural Zvimba home.
The workers, Constancia Mugabe (50), Johanne Mapurisa (50), Saymore Nhetekwa (47) and Andrew Muhumbe (37) are accused of stealing US$922 000 from a briefcase at Mugabe’s rural home.
Prosecutor Herald Matura said Mugabe was out of the country, seeking medical treatment. Chinhoyi magistrate Amos Mubobo postponed the case to June 10, 2019.
But defence lawyer, Tapiwa Muchineripi was not amused and requested the court to relax bail conditions for his clients. Mubobo granted the request and ruled that the accused will no longer report to the police every Friday. It is the State case that sometime in 2016, Mugabe gave four briefcases and some books to his workers to keep in his library. At an unknown date, the workers connived and opened one of the briefcases that had US$922 000 which they shared and bought assets that include vehicles and residential stands.