Higher and Tertiary Education deputy minister Godfrey Gandawa’s fraud case is in limbo after the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) failed to file its heads of argument in the Constitutional Court for the second time.
BY EVERSON MUSHAVA
Gandawa is challenging the constitutionality of his arrest over alleged abuse of Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund (Zimdef) money amounting to $500 000 following his arrest last year.
A Harare magistrate ruled that the Magunje MP’s arrest by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (Zacc) was unlawful and that the search warrants used to obtain documents from Zimdef were illegal.
The court also ruled that Zacc had no arresting powers. Gandawa was granted permission to take the case to the ConCourt and was on February 21 asked by the court to file his heads of arguments within 10 days.
Gandawa filed the heads of arguments on March 8 and served the state, which was now supposed to respond and also file its heads of arguments by March 22.
However, the state failed to meet the deadline and was technically barred. It was supposed to apply for upliftment of the condonation to be allowed to file the heads of arguments which was done on May 3.
The matter was set down for hearing on June 16 and Chief Justice Luke Malaba awarded the state the condonation saying it was an important matter.
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The state was condoned and ordered to file and serve the heads of arguments within 10 days, which lasped on June 30.
But the state again failed to comply with the order only serving the papers on July 4, when it was again barred.
The state now has to apply for upliftment of the bar for the second time to be allowed to file the papers.
In a letter to the ConCourt, Gandawa’s lawyers Kantor and Immerman said the state had failed to comply and should be barred from filing the heads of argument.
“On 16 June 2017, we appeared before the Honourable Chief Justice in an application for upliftment of bar. After hearing arguments, the chief justice granted the application and directed the state to file and serve its heads of arguments within 10 days of the court order,” part of the letter read.
“The 10 day period lapsed on June 30, 2017. The state failed to file and serve us with heads of argument, therefore, the state is bared.”
In his respondent’s heads of arguments, Gandawa, who is charged with several offences that include criminal abuse of office, fraud, corruptly concealing a personal interest from principle and obstructing course of justice, questioned Zacc’s arresting powers.
