HARARE – Mines minister Winston Chitando was handed a 90-day jail term on Thursday after the High Court found him in contempt of two court rulings.
Chitando neglected or was refusing to transfer mining claims from North Rand (Private) Limited to RioZim Limited, Justice David Mangota found.
The minister can avoid jail by taking steps to comply with the previous court judgements within seven days, the judge said.
Ruling in a contempt application brought by RioZim through their lawyers Liberty Ndangana and Advocate Thabani Mpofu, Justice Mangota said: “The first respondent (Chitando) is found in contempt of the orders that were granted by this honourable court on June 6, 2018, and October 10, 2018.
“The first respondent be and is hereby committed to the Harare Remand Prison for a period of three months.
“The warrant of committal is, however, suspended for seven days on condition that the first respondent shall faithfully and dutifully comply with the orders given in this court…”
