HARARE – Business partners, Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu have been denied bail by Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa who ruled the controversial pair could not be trusted with their freedom while awaiting trial.
Chimombe and Mpofu are accused of fraud after they allegedly failed to deliver goats to the lands and agriculture ministry for the Presidential Goat Scheme.
Prosecutors say the fraud charges emanate from tender documents submitted by the two men through a company called Blackdeck Private Limited in September 2021 when the ministry of lands and agriculture invited bids for the supply of 632,001 goats under a scheme worth US$87,757,168 to distribute nationally.
Under the terms of the scheme, beneficiaries would pass on the animals to the next needy household after kidding.
Gofa said the two should remain in jail awaiting their trial set for the High Court.
“The applicants might reoffend, cause people to demonstrate, they might flee to other countries, there are no bail conditions that alleviate fears, bail is hereby denied,” she ruled.
The two however feel they have better prospects to be granted their freedom at the High Court and will be filing an appeal against Gofa’s ruling soon.
“We do not agree with that judgement, but we respect it as lawyers,” Advocate Ashiel Mugiya, representing the two, told journalists outside court.
“We are officers of the court and where we are disgruntled with a judgement …if you are in an inferior court, you approach another court.
“So, our instructions from our clients were that in case the magistrates’ court denies us bail, we would appeal at the High court and that is precisely what we are going to do.
“We respect the court’s judgement, but we do not agree with it.
“There are issues which we feel if we take it to the High Court, the High Court will find differently.”
Chimombe and Mpofu will be back in court on August 7 for their indictment to the High Court for trial.
