AN official from the Ministry of the Veterans of the Liberation Struggle, Simbarashe Oswald Gurira, was on Friday last week arraigned before the Harare magistrates courts facing allegations of abuse of duty involving US$77 000.
Gurira, 38, from Unit C, Seke, Chitungwiza, is accused of misusing his position to facilitate fraudulent land deals
Harare regional magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa remanded Gurira out of custody to October 31 pending finalisation of investigations.
The State led by prosecutor Lancelot Mutsokoti alleges that in 2018, an informant who was in the business of buying and selling stands, approached Muwondori, with no further particulars known and who is also an official from Lands, ministry enquiring on how she can acquire stands for resale.
Muwondori then introduced the informants to Gurira.
The State alleges that Gurura indicated to the informant that he could facilitate and provide residential stands which the informant could sell on his behalf.
The informant reportedly inquired with Gurira who confirmed that he had residential stands in Chiredzi which were available for sale.
The court heard that Gurira and his accomplice Everisto Nyamadzawo, who has already been arrested and arraigned before the courts, produced a copy of a lease agreement for the stands to make the informant believe that they were the ones responsible for allocating the stands.
Gurira allegedly supplied the informant with a list of 18 stand numbers on the WhatsApp platform equipped with stand numbers, the informant proceeded to Chiredzi Town Council to verify the stands’ status.
According to Mutsokoti, Chiredzi Town Council told the informant that the stands were vacant commonage stands.
The informant reportedly gave feedback on the status of the stands to Gurira after being informed that the stands belong to the Local Government and Public Works ministry.
The court heard that she then supplied customers’ details to Gurira including money collected for the purchase of stands.
Each high density stand was pegged at a value of US$3 500 and a low density stand was being sold for US$7 000. Of the 18 stands, informant sold a total of 14 high density and four low-density residential stands.
About US$77 000 was realised from the sale of the residential stands.
The informant allegedly met Gurira and Nyamadzawo in Harare on three occasions to make the payments.
However, the offence came to light after a wrangle over stand between Solomon Muchebve and another.
The matter was reported to the police leading to Gurira’s arrest.