KAROI Town Council (KTC) acting secretary, Tongai Namisala is in soup after allegedly demanding a bribe from an engineer contracted to design a master plan for the local authority.

This Monday, Namisala (45) appeared before Karoi Magistrate, Edward Verenga, facing criminal abuse of office charges as defined in section 174(l)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act chapter 9:23.

The accused person, who was arrested Saturday evening, was granted US$500 bail and returns to court on October 31, 2024, for routine remand.

The State case, led by prosecutor Reginald Chavora, is that sometime in November last year, Marlon Mapika in his personal capacity was assigned by the Ministry of Local Government to work as lead planner for KTC's master plan.

As part of the contract, Mapika was paid US$180,000 cash deposited into his POSB account number 500007943714 by KTC towards the master plan design project.

Court heard that on an unknown date, Namisala using his influence as acting town secretary, contacted Mapika and instructed him to pay US$36,000 which is 20% of the total amount paid for the master plan project.

Namisala was allegedly paid a US$30,000 "thank you" token, which was transferred into his personal bank account, leaving a balance of US$6,000.

According to the prosecutor, on various occasions Namisala demanded and got varying amounts of cash ranging from US$1 000 to US$3 000 purportedly for his children's school fees, his weekend entertainment and study leave upkeep, among other needs.

It is further alleged that on October 11, the accused person paid back US$400 to offset the money he had asked from Mapika.

The court averred that due to the influence peddling, Namisala received a total of US$54 100, while the contractor incurred transaction charges totalling US$1 500. Hence, the planner suffered a US$53 700 loss.

The court argues that the accused person acted unlawfully.