ZANU PF Makoni West aspiring candidate, Moses Ruwona, has been locked up on allegations of fraud and money laundering.

Ruwona who defeated ICT minister, Jenfan Muswere in recently held Zanu PF primary elections before he was disqualified has been in custody since last week.

He was due to appear in court for bail application Wednesday but his case was postponed to Thursday.

On Monday, Ruwona appeared before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi jointly charged with Macmillan Chiweshe.

He was charged with criminal abuse of office.

Allegations are that sometime in December 2022, Aubrey Chademana, the complainant, was awarded a contract by Liquid Telecommunications Holdings (Pvt) Limited in Zimbabwe to supply outdoor Wi-Fi routers.

According to court papers, Chademana was supposed to import Wi-Fi routers from Liquid Telecommunication Holdings in Mauritius.

It is alleged that on December 8, Chademana engaged Ruwona who undertook to settle the payment using his offshore foreign currency account.

"On December 8, Chiweshe received US$630 400 from the complainant and forwarded it to Ruwona to settle the bill," alleged prosecutors.

Ruwona allegedly provided a fake proof of payment document claiming to have transferred the money from his account in Zambia to Liquid Telecommunications Mauritius' Standard Bank.

On January 20 and February 3 2023, Ruwona and Chiweshe again sent the complainant fake proofs of payment.

On March 7, the duo successfully transferred US$280 332 and US$132 151.24 to Liquid Telecommunications Mauritius, but failed to account for the remaining US$218 249.

Using the same modus operandi, they allegedly duped a local money transfer agency of US$256 000 in a deal to import some fabric material.