A Local Government employee Everisto Nyamadzawo who landed in the dock on allegations of abusing his powers as a public officer has been granted US$500 by Harare magistrate Marewanazvo Gofa.
Nyamadzwo (39) spent the weekend in custody after his arrest on Thursday for prejudicing the State of US$77 000 in a botched stands deal.
The State alleges that in 2018, the informant who was in the business of buying and selling stands approached Muwondori with no further particulars known, approached an official from the Ministry of Lands enquiring on how she could acquire stands for resale.
Muwondori then introduced the informant to Nyamadzawo.
It is alleged that Nyamadzawo indicated that he was in a position to facilitate and provide residential stands which the informant could sell on his behalf.
The informant then inquired with Nyamadzawo who confirmed to her that he had residential stands in Chiredzi town which were available for sale.
Nyamadzawo and one Simbarashe Gurira who is still at large produced a copy of a lease agreement for the stands to make the informant believe that they were the ones who are responsible for allocating the stands.
The court heard Gurira then supplied the informant with a list of 18 stands numbers on WhatsApp.
"Equipped with stands numbers, the informant proceeded to Chiredzi Town Council to verify the status of the stands.
"Chiredzi town Council responded informing the informant that the stands are commonage stands and they are vacant.
"Council officials went on to show informant the location of the stands on the ground," prosecutors said.
The informant then gave feedback on the status of the stands to Gurira after being informed that the stands belonged to the Local Government.
She then started to look for potential buyers for those stands.
The court heard she then supplied details of customers to Simbarashe Gurira together with money collected meant for the purchase of stands.
She opened records for the stands with Chiredzi Town Council and all of the stands were entered into the council database.
Each high-density stand was pegged at a value of US$3500-00 and a low-density stand was being sold for US$7 000-00.
Of the 18 stands informant sold a total of 14 high-density stands and four low-density residential stands.
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A total of about US$77 000-00 was realized from the sale of the residential stands.
The informant paid the money to Nyamadzawo in the presence of Chenje with no further particulars known.
The offence came to light after a wrangle of stand ownership between Solomon Muchebve who bought a stand from the informant and another party who claimed to have bought the same stand directly from the Ministry of Local Government.
The wrangle led to the parties checking the status of the stand with the Ministry of Local Government where it was revealed that Muchebve was not registered in the Ministry's database and the offer letter which he had was counterfeit.
Nyamadzawo was arrested whilst trying to negotiate with the informant who is now always in and out of civil court with people claiming reimbursement due to double allocations of the same stands she was instructed to sell on behalf of the accused person and his accomplices.
As a result of the accused's action, the State suffered an actual prejudice of US$77 000-00.
