INCARCERATED Zanu PF central committee member Mike Chimombe and his business partner Moses Mpofu yesterday suffered double tragedy when the High Court and magistrates’ court rejected their bid for bail in two separate cases.
High Court judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda dismissed Chimombe and Mpofu’s bail application in a US$7 million fraud case.
The duo was arrested on June 20 and had approached the High Court after the lower court dismissed their bail application.
Chimombe and Mpofu are expected back in court for trial in September while the State objected to the bail application hearing due to existence of the trial date.
Justice Kwenda in his ruling upheld the State’s objection based on mootness of the case and subsequently, he dismissed the application.
The two are accused of falsifying documents in the use of Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry (Pvt) Ltd as supporting documents, in a bid to secure a tender to supply 500 000 goats to the Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development ministry for in the Presidential Empowerment Scheme.
The allegedly falsified documents submitted along with the bid for the purposes of meeting the requirements of the tender were a Zimbabwe Revenue Authority tax clearance certificate and a National Social Security Authority compliance certificate, both in the name of Blackdeck.
The State alleged that Chimombe and Mpofu connived to and did submit the falsified documents well knowing that Blackdeck was not registered in terms of the laws of Zimbabwe.
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The two allegedly intended to and went on to give a false impression that Blackdeck was a registered company and juristic person and that its bid met the tender requirements for a valid bid.
The State is alleged to have acted on the misrepresentation, thereby allegedly dealing with a non-existent entity and treating Blackdeck’s bid as valid, culminating in the acceptance of an invalid bid and a subsequent award of the tender, which prejudiced the government and other competitors.
Blackdeck allegedly failed to fully discharge its obligations allegedly, causing an actual prejudice of US$7 712 197 to the State.
Meanwhile, Harare regional magistrate Stanford Mambanje yesterday dismissed Chimombe and Mpofu’ bail application in the case they are alleged to have fraudulently used their company Juluka Projects and Plant Hire for rehabilitation of Harare street lighting ahead of the Sadc Heads of State and Government Summit.
They allegedly used false documents to acquire a tender after their company failed to meet the requirements in the first place
Mambanje, in his ruling, said it was confirmed that the two earned around US$200 000 from their business and can live anywhere outside Zimbabwe.
He said the court was convinced that there was a case against the two.
The matter was postponed to September 12 for routine remand.
