ZPC saga: Chivayo queries Supreme Court appeal without his approval
Chivayo filed the application seeking to rectify a record of appeal allegedly prepared by the Registrar and submitted to the Supreme Court for determination.
He said this was done without his affirmation as required by the law.
“This is an application for the rectification of the record of appeal prepared by the Registrar of the High Court in respect of the appeal by the first respondent (Intratek Zimbabwe) pending the Supreme Court under case number SC422/2019,” said Chivayo through his lawyers.
“The said Registrar subsequently forwarded the said record of appeal to the Supreme Court without the applicant’s affirmation as required by rule 17 (11) of the Supreme Court Rules, 2018. This followed the applicant’s protestation at the inspection of the record that the same was not adequate for its intended purposes.
“The applicants seek the rectification of the record of appeal by the inclusion of the documents that the learned judge had regard to by reference to related matters. It is important that such documents be part of the record.”
Chivayo and his Intratek are co-applicants in the urgent chamber application.
Court papers show that sometime this year, Chivayo and his company appeared at the Harare Magistrates’ Court for trial on charges of fraud and contravening the Exchange Control Act.
Chivayo made an application for exception to the charges which was dismissed by Harare magistrate Lazini Ncube prompting him and his firm to approach the High Court for review.
It was after the review that High Court judge Owen Tagu acquitted Chivayo and his firm, a result which did not go down well with the Prosecutor General (PG) Kumbirai Hodzi, who then appealed to the Supreme Court.
Hodzi argued that Tagu misdirected himself in finding that the facts do not disclose an offence of fraud when it was apparent from the state outline that Chivayo and his company misrepresented to the ZPC Finance Director that a total of US$5 624 130 had been paid to subcontractors for a feasibility study and pre-commencement work on the Gwanda Project when such money had not been paid to subcontractors.
In actual fact, Hodzi argued, Chivayo and his company had used the money for their own benefits to the disadvantage of ZPC.
The matter is still pending_New Zimbabwe