High Court judge Pisirayi Kwenda has postponed the trial of fraud-accused businessmen Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe to this Wednesday after their lawyers requested more time.
The lawyers told the court that they had asked for more documents from the State to prepare defense of their clients but only a few were provided.
In this regard, they asked for a postponement so that they can discuss the issue of the pending documents with the State before the trial starts on Wednesday.
"We are not ready to proceed. On September 20, We wrote and asked the State to furnish us with further particulars.
"The State wrote back and furnished us with some of the particulars but not all.
"We have had an engagement with my colleagues and agree that we have to sit down and identify documents they can give us and which ones they cannot. After that we can commence the trial," said Tapson Dzvetero who is representing Mpofu.
Witness Mabhaudhi representing the State consented to the postponement.
Lovemore Madhuku who is taking instructions from Chimombe's lawyer, Ashiel Mugiya raised the same issue further noting that he is still reading through court papers to understand the matter better.
Kwenda allowed the postponement ruling that the hearing should kick off Wednesday without failure.
"We will allow the postponement to tomorrow but stress that in a criminal trial, we need only a whole week to deal with a lot of witnesses...it's not easy to find four clear days. So I will recommend counsel that we sit tomorrow and we hope that these issues will be solved among counsel. The housekeeping issues should be dealt with on time," said the judge.
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The lawyers representing the pair also said their clients have complaints they want to raise when the trial commences regarding the way they have been handled from the time they were arrested.
"We are going to raise constitutional issues when the trial starts. Our clients' constitutional rights, which have been given to them by the constitution have been violated left, right and centre, and the issue that we put before the court is for it to determine whether, in the circumstances, they will still be able to get a fair trial which is a right given by the constitution and cannot be taken away.
"We believe that what our clients went through is such that they will not be able to have a fair trial. When rights are given, they ought to be enjoyed," said Madhuku.
He also hinted at the possibility of the matter being referred to the constitutional court.
Their trial will now run from October 2 to 4 on a continuous roll.
The trial concerns a case in which the two allegedly forged a ZIMRA Tax clearance certificate and a NSSA compliance certificate in the name of their Blackdeck Private Limited and attached them to a bidding document that they submitted to the Lands Ministry for a tender which was meant for the supply and delivery of goats under the Presidential Goat Pass-on Scheme
