Zimbabwe’s junior information minister, Bright Matonga, and a co-accused were granted bail of Z$150-million ($148) on Wednesday following their arrest for
corruption.
Police detained Matonga as well as Charles Nherera, chairperson of the state-owned Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (Zupco), late on Tuesday in the capital.
”The applicants for bail are senior members of society. It is the court’s view that an accused person is innocent until proven guilty,” Harare magistrate Faith Mushore said.
”It is ordered that the accused pay 15-million [Zimbabwe] dollars bail deposit with the Clerk of Court and reside at the given address.”
The accussed were also ordered not to interfere with state witnesses and report once a week to the police. If convicted they face nine years in jail.
Nherera is already on trial for corruption, in which he is accused by businessman Jayesh Sha of soliciting a $5 000 bribe for every bus Sha supplied to Zupco.
Sha is the director of Gift Investments, the company tasked with supplying the buses to Zupco and is a key state witness in the case.
The deputy minister was also summoned as a state witness against Nherera but his testimony did not implicate Zupco chairperson in any wrongdoing.
The arrest came hours after Zimbabwe’s long-time leader, President Robert Mugabe, warned that corruption levels were threatening to ”undermine the very foundations of the country’s socioeconomic development and as such, constitutes a potent threat to national well-being”.
”Government will not therefore, hesitate to invoke the full force of the law against those perpetrating this vice, regardless of their social status or political affiliation,” Mugabe said at the opening of parliament on Tuesday.
Matonga’s lawyer Wilson Manase told the state-run Herald they would fight the charges saying the allegations against Matonga were ”just flimsy”.
The duo are expected to next appear in court on August 9.
Also in Zimbabwe, well-known businessman John Arnold Bredenkamp appeared in court late on Tuesday charged with using a South African passport without permission while being a Zimbabwean citizen, a criminal offence in the southern African country.
Bredenkamp (66) was picked up by the police late on Friday and remained in custody, his lawyers said. – Sapa-AFP