Two Harare City Council heads of department serving six-year sentences over their attempt to sell Mount Pleasant Sports Club and golf course to a private developer will have their appeals heard in the Supreme Court tomorrow.

Finance director Stanley Ndemera and chamber secretary Charles Kandemiri are challenging their conviction on charges of criminal abuse of office before the three-judge appeals panel of Justice Lavender Makoni, Justice Felistus Chatukuta and Justice Hlekani Mwayera.

In October last year, the two lost their bid for leave to appeal against both conviction and sentence after High Court Judge Justice Pisirayi Kwenda, who presided over the separate applications by the two, found no merit in either and tossed them out.

Since the trial judge had rejected their leave to appeal, the two had no automatic right of appeal, but could still apply to the Supreme Court to see if the judges there were willing to hear an appeal. They applied and the Supreme Court agreed to hear their appeal.

In the High Court, Justice Kwenda ruled that both Ndemera and Kandemiri had no reasonable prospects of success on appeal. The two were charged alongside former mayor Herbert Gomba and town clerk Hosea Chisango.

These two co-accused were acquitted on the basis that their involvement was so minimal that no criminal liability could be attached to them.

In discharging the two, Justice Kwenda noted that they only signed the agreement of sale as a matter of policy because their assumption was that everything was done above board.

The trial court heard that Ndemera and Kandemiri sold the council-owned Mt Pleasant Sports Club in Vainona, including the golf course, without following procedure.

Their actions, the judge ruled, were deliberate. The golf course was sold to Hardspec Investments for $23 923 340 while the club was quoted at US$2,3 million.