HARARE – Prosecutors admitted defeat on Tuesday in their pursuit of fugitive former Tourism Minister Walter Mzembi, who was allowed by a court to seek treatment in South Africa but never returned.
Prosecutor Brian Vito told the Harare Magistrate’s Court that they had failed to locate Mzembi and extradite him back home to stand trial on several corruption-related charges.
This has prompted the State to separate the trials of Mzembi and his alleged accomplices.
Mzembi is jointly charged with tourism ministry consultant Aaron Dzingira Mushoriwa and the former permanent secretary Margret Sangarwe. They are accused of misappropriating funds meant for the 2013 United Nations World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO) General Assembly.
“The State is having challenges to secure the accused and is applying for separation of him from his accomplices so that we proceed to trial without him,” Vito told senior regional magistrate, Hosea Mujaya.
Mujaya postponed the matter to September 5 when Sangarwe and Mushoriwa’s trial will commence.
A magistrate issued a warrant of arrest for Mzembi earlier this year after he skipped court, with his lawyer Job Sikhala saying he was battling colon cancer in South Africa.
This stalled the trial while Mzembi’s co-accused demanded separate trials.
In May, Vito said prosecutors had sought to extradite the former minister through the use of Zimbabwean and South African state agents but ditched the plan.
Vito said the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) then formally wrote to Interpol requesting that Mzembi be placed on a red alert so that he is arrested and extradited if he is located in a signatory country.
“This means SA authorities will be on the lookout for him,” Vito said in May as he tendered a copy of the letter written to Interpol while holding onto the hope Mzembi would be found and returned home to stand trial alongside Sangarwe and Mushoriwa.
