THE High Court has dismissed the bail application filed by three City of Harare executives, who are accused of criminal abuse of office after they allegedly awarded Juluka Enndo Joint Venture a tender to refurbish street lights in Harare.
Jabulani Mukomanzi, Denford Zhungu and Tawanda Mutenhabundo had their bail application denied by High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero.
The trio was part of the City of Harare tender evaluation committee and allegedly unprocedurally awarded a tender to Juluka Enndo in breach of procurement provisions which required going through a competitive bidding process.
According to court papers, Juluka is owned by incarcerated businessman Moses Mpofu.
It is alleged that the council executives further disregarded their earlier decision at a previous sitting of the same committee to disqualify Juluka for failing to meet the tender requirements.
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In addition, Mpofu was not in good standing with the City of Harare as one of his companies, Synlak (Pvt) Ltd, was awarded a US$1 million tender for a biogas digester, but failed to deliver.
The trio applied for bail at the magistrate court and it was denied on the basis that they will not attend trial if admitted on bail pending trial. They then approached the High Court to appeal the lower court’s decision.
But Justice Chikowero ruled that the appeal did not attack the judgment, but completely misses the point.
The judge said Mukomanzi showed his intentions to interfere with investigations when the investigating officers visited him in his office.
Justice Chikowero said Mukomanzi lied to the investigating officers that the documentation requested was at the Procurement Regulatory Authority of Zimbabwe (Praz) offices while they were right on his desk.
“The investigating officer saw it. He enquired if it was the one on the desk which he claimed to be with Praz.
“Thus cornered, the first appellant [Mukomanzi] feigned surprise and only then did he release the documentary evidence requested by the investigators,” the judge said.
“There can be no doubt that the first appellant attempted to interfere with investigations by endeavouring to conceal evidence. That he did in the face of a team of police officers who were investigating the matter.”
The judge further ruled that Mukomanzi would interfere with witnesses if given bail.
“The attempt to conceal the documents eventually recovered in the first appellant’s office, had it succeeded, would have benefited all three appellants,” Justice Chikowero ruled.
The judge said Mutenhabundo, an engineering technician, had recommended and testified that Juluka was capable of refurbishing the street lights.
The judge said the case for the prosecution appeared to be so strong that there was a real prospect of the appellants being convicted, saying they were likely to receive a custodial sentence.
He then dismissed the bail application.
