Bulawayo Ward 26 Councillor Mpumelelo Moyo has been sent back to prison after the High Court struck his appeal against conviction and sentence in a bribery case off the roll due to irregularities in the court papers.
High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi ordered Moyo’s defence team to put its papers in order before the appeal can proceed.
Moyo was convicted of demanding US$20 000 from Labenmon Investments in exchange for facilitating the approval of land for a proposed cement mixing plant in Cowdray Park.
In an interview, his lawyer, Tinashe Runganga of Tanaka Law Chambers, said the case record contained multiple submissions filed by different legal representatives, making it difficult for the court to establish which documents were valid.
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“There were some challenges with the record in the system. The appellant changed legal representatives several times,” said Runganga.
“The first lawyer filed a notice of appeal and grounds of appeal in February, but there was no signature. The second lawyer also filed the same and submitted heads of argument. When I was now representing him, I was asked to file grounds of appeal,” he said.
“The other grounds of appeal were therefore supposed to be removed from the record in the system, but that was not done.
“So when we recently appeared, the Judge said he could not make head or tail of the case because there were a lot of submissions that were appearing on the record. So now we have to start the whole process afresh, hence he was sent back to jail. But we are still working on the matter.”
Moyo’s absence was also conspicuous at Thursday’s special Bulawayo City Council meeting, where he was expected to present the local authority’s proposed 2027 budget in his capacity as chairperson of the Finance and Development Committee
His deputy, Councillor Dumisani Nkomo, stepped in to present the budget in his absence.
Moyo was sentenced to 18 months in prison, with six months suspended, leaving him to serve an effective 12-month jail term.
He was initially represented by Prince Butshe of Butshe and Partners, who filed grounds of appeal on his behalf. Moyo later changed lawyers, first engaging Nqobani Sithole before appointing Runganga.
During an earlier appearance before the same court, Justice Mutevedzi had directed Runganga to prepare the grounds of appeal.
According to the State, represented by Kelvin Guvheya, Moyo, who chaired the council’s Finance and Development Committee, solicited the money from Labenmon Investments in exchange for facilitating the approval of a 5.6-hectare piece of land in Cowdray Park, where the company intended to construct a cement mixing plant.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission arrested Moyo shortly after he allegedly received the money from Nyathi at her house, where she had set a trap.
Nyathi had lured Moyo to her house to collect the US$20 000. Moyo reportedly claimed that 20 councillors had facilitated the approval of the land and that each wanted US$1 000.
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