Mpofu and Chimombe face charges of defrauding the state of millions of people under the presidential goat scheme.

Jailed businessmen Mike Chimombe and Moses Mpofu say the chances of them getting a fair trial are slim because their case was about political persecution as they raised questions over the fact that controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo remained untouched.

Mpofu and Chimombe face charges of defrauding the state of millions of people under the presidential goat scheme.

Chimombe and Mpofu accuse the State and the courts of violating their rights, claiming that they had been denied bail on several occasions despite it being a right.

The duo said this through their lawyers while presenting evidence before High Court Judge Pisirayi Kwenda on their application for referral to the Constitutional Court.

Chimombe and Mpofu also accuse the judge of unilaterally accepting a request for the matter to be broadcast live without any input or presentation from their lawyers.

They charged that the decision to allow the proceedings to be broadcast live or streamed on various media platforms was taken without their and the State’s participation and consent.

“On the third day of the hearing, it is not clear whether the judge indicated in the presence of the evaluators or not that the court had started late because he was considering in the courtroom a request to have the proceedings live broadcast,” the duo stated. .

“The learned judge reported that he had granted the request for the media to broadcast the proceedings live in the courtrooms.

“This alleged request was considered in the absence of the accused and to the exclusion of the State.

“Furthermore, it is not clear who the applicants were.

“It is not clear who the parties were to that request, as the defendants were not subpoenaed nor provided with a copy of said request.”

The two want the Constitutional Court to determine whether their continued detention violated their rights as defendants.

They allege that they were being punished after being wrongly accused of leaking Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (Zec) tender documents and audios of Chivayo bragging about how he bribed certain government officials.

The duo want Justice Kwenda to accept their request to refer their matter to Concourt and also to stay the trial process pending Concourt’s determination.

Prosecutors say the charges arise from bidding documents submitted by the two men through a company called Blackdeck Private Limited in September 2021.

The Ministry of Lands invited tenders for the supply of 632,001 goats under a scheme valued at US$87,757,168 to distribute goats nationwide.

Based on the misrepresentations, prosecutors claim that the ministry paid 30% of the contract in local currency, an amount of ZWL 1.6 billion, which was allegedly equivalent to US$7,712,197 in two installments, on April 21, 2022 and the month of June. 29, 2022.

The court found that the ministry had suffered a loss of US$7,380,751.85.

Chimombe and Mpofu said it was baffling that Chivayo had not been charged over the Zec scandal, but it was one of the reasons the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission began investigating them.

They said the goat scandal is being used to divert attention from the Zec scandal.

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