Reports just received indicate that fired Former Environment, tourism and Hospitality Industry minister Priscah Mupfumira’s Supreme Court bail application has been denied.
Mupfumira who is detained at the Chikurubi Female Prison on charges of criminal abuse of office after she allegedly swindled the National Social Security Authority (Nssa) of over US$95 million, approached the Supreme Court for bail after her attempt at the High Court hit a snag.
High Court judge Justice Erica Ndewere dismissed Mupfumira’s bail bid on the basis that there are compelling reasons justifying her continued incarceration, including that as a former Cabinet minister she was a flight risk and could interfere with witnesses.
Mupfumira, who is also Senator for Mashonaland West Province, was remanded in custody in July after acting Chief Magistrate, Munamato Mutevedzi, upheld Prosecutor-General, Kumbirai Hodzi’s certificate which ensured she was further detained for 21 days without applying for bail.
But in her submissions before the Supreme Court through her lawyers Chinyama and Partners, Mupfumira maintained that the State’s evidence against her was weak, adding the High Court, had erred in many respects when it denied her a chance to be tried out of custody.
At the Supreme Court, the matter was heard on Tuesday, before Justice Marie-Anne Gowora and she dismissed the bail application for lack of merit and on basis that the appeal was defective and Mupfumira’s lawyer was fully aware of the irregularities.
She noted that the determination by the Acting Chief Magistrate Munamato Mutevedzi on the certificate by the Prosecutor General was not appealed against.
The High Court ‘bail hearing’ was therefore a non-event hence Mupfumira approached the Supreme Court without following proper court processes at the lower courts.
“In my view, the court a quo was not properly seized with this matter and the decision to set aside was a gross irregularity.
“There was no legal premise before the court a quo to interfere with the certificate. Its acceptance by the Acting Chief Magistrate was an exercise of his discretion in terms of the Act which exercise was never challenged. The court a quo was invited and persuaded to set it aside on the basis of submissions made to it by appellant’s counsel premised on the alleged constitutional invalidity of s 32(3b) of the Act.
“I have already found that those remarks by the court a quo have no legal justification,” Gowora noted.
Mupfumira was arrested July 25 by members of the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC).