HARARE – Prosecutors in Harare are refusing to take up the case of a colleague accused of criminal abuse of office for not opposing an application by former finance minister, Ignatius Chombo, for the release of his passport.
Tapiwa Kasema appeared before Harare magistrate Nyasha Vhitorini on Thursday with a prosecutor from the president’s special anti-corruption unit, Zivanai Macharaga, standing in for regular prosecutors.
Kasema had made two applications, one for the release of his passport and another for his removal from remand.
Macharaga told the court that there was a possibility that the State may not respond to Kasema’s application challenging remand because no prosecutor wanted to touch the case.
“The State might file its response by June 14. If there is no response from the State by the next remand date, the court can proceed to make a ruling on the application,” Macharaga said.
Magistrate Vhitorini granted Kasema his passport held as part of his bail conditions and ordered him to return it to the clerk of court by June 18.
Vhitorini withheld a decision on the application for refusal of further remand, insisting that the State should file a response.
Kasema will be back in court on June 20.
Kasema’s arrest led to prosecutors going on strike, leading to an intervention by Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi who assured them that no more prosecutors will be arrested in the exercise of their duties.
He was arrested after a decision not to oppose Chombo’s application for the release of his passport to enable him to undergo medical treatment in South Africa. Chombo faces multiple counts of corruption.
Chombo was stopped from travelling at the airport after a suspected state security agent stripped him of his passport and returned it to the court clerk, in defiance of the court ruling.
