HE minister fails in bid to avoid trial on fraud charge

Zimbabwe’s Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development Minister Professor Jonathan Moyo has lost his Constitutional Court bid to overturn his arrest on charges of allegedly misappropriating around US$450,000 from a manpower development fund that finances students, among other activities.

Moyo is facing the allegations alongside Deputy Minister Dr Godfrey Gandawa and Zimbabwe Manpower Development Fund, or ZIMDEF, Finance Director Nicholas Mapute. ZIMDEF was established through an act of parliament to fund human capital development. Among other things, it finances students on industrial attachment programmes. The Employers’ Confederation of Zimbabwe contributes 100% of the fund.

Following his arrest late last year, Moyo approached the Constitutional Court, the country’s highest court, arguing that his arrest was unlawful as it had been effected by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission or ZACC. He also argued that a police officer who was on secondment to the commission had no arresting powers.

Days before his arrest the minister – a former politics professor at the University of Zimbabwe and researcher at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa – issued a statement denying any wrongdoing.

He blamed his woes on succession fights in President Robert Mugabe’s ruling party, ZANU-PF. The minister claimed his “persecution” was being driven by the country’s vice-president, Emmerson Mnangagwa, who wants to succeed President Mugabe.

Last Wednesday the full bench of the Constitutional Court said the minister should appear before a magistrate like any other Zimbabwean.

“No constitutional matter has arisen in this case. The Constitutional Court has no jurisdiction to determine a matter which is not constitutional,” ruled Chief Justice Luke Malaba.

The court found that he had jumped the gun by approaching the apex court instead of challenging his arrest in the lower court. The court also found that secondment of a police officer to the ZACC did not strip him or her of arresting powers.

According to a charge sheet prepared by the ZACC, Moyo is alleged to have used part of the ZIMDEF money to fund cronies in his constituency, Tsholotsho, as part of a bid to regain his parliamentary seat in the 2018 general elections.

The minister is also alleged to have been given a US$24,000 loan from ZIMDEF that he used for funeral expenses following the death of his daughter last year in South Africa. The loan was later paid back.

Deputy Minister Godfrey Gandawa is alleged to have formed a company that was used as a conduit to steal student funds.

The Zimbabwe National Students Union last week said it welcomes the ruling which gives the green light for Moyo to face prosecution.

“By stealing these funds and using them for his personal financial and political gain, he acted insincerely and misled the 320,000 students of higher and tertiary education, and the general Zimbabwean populace that he is a public development officer when he is nothing but a con artist abusing a public office for his personal benefit,” said the union’s Secretary General Makomborero Haruzivishe.

“It was inhumane for him to abuse such funds especially at a time when tens of thousands of students are failing to pay school fees as they are now being forced to fill the gaps created by rampant corruption in the education sector. At a time when the government owes colleges and universities millions of dollars, the first thing Minister Moyo and his accomplices do upon assuming office is to steal money instead of addressing such a critical deficit. It is clear that their thieving tendencies did not only sabotage the right to education of many, but also compromised quality administration within tertiary institutions.”

Haruzivishe said if the national prosecuting authority drags its feet in prosecuting the case, the union has resolved to employ private prosecution so as to send a clear message to would-be offenders and to all the administrators in colleges and universities who are stealing money meant to sponsor education and students.