Ginimbi arrest warrant dropped

A Harare court yesterday dropped an arrest warrant for businessman Genius Kadungure after he successfully argued that he missed a flight on September 17, causing him to fail to pitch for his fraud trial.

Kadungure's administrative warrant was revoked by regional magistrate Morgan Nemadire.

Kadungure, affectionately known as Ginimbi, was represented by Jonathan Samukange. He was warned to attend his trial on October 9 without fail.

"The court understood that the accused person missed his flight and had to rebook. Pretrial incarceration is intended for individuals who exhibit a conduct consistent with that of avoiding trial," Nemadire ruled.

The trial prosecutor, Ephraim Zinyandu, had proposed that Kadungure should be committed to prison until the trial is finalised alleging his failure to attend court was wilful.

"The record indicates that the accused person had been served with summons to appear in court but chose to go to America. Clearly the accused person is a man of means and may choose whenever he wishes to flee from this court's jurisdiction," Zinyandu said.

"It will be in the interests of justice that he remanded in custody until this case is finalised.

"He prejudiced the witnesses who travelled all the way from Kadoma and incurred expenses."

Kadungure is jointly charged with jet-setting businessman Wicknell Chivayo on two counts of fraud dating back to 2012. The State is alleging that sometime in November 2012, Chivayo connived with Kadungure to create a fictitious company named Transco Civil Engineering, purportedly based in neighbouring South Africa. It is being alleged that they proceeded to open an ABSA bank account. The State claims they also opened an e-mail account procurement@marangediamonds.com purporting to be doing business for Marange Diamonds, which is one of the companies that used to operate in Chiadzwa, in Marange.

They then rented space at Hetzner (Private) Limited in South Africa.

Chivayo and Kadungure then contacted the complainant, whose name was not revealed in court, pretending to be the chief buyers at Marange Resources, looking for mining pumps.

They reportedly gave the complainant an order to supply 10 T-90 Transco-Flo Helical Rotor pumps and referred him to Transco knowing that it was a fictitious company.

The complainant then sent his brother, Enock Gatawa and ZAR446 900 was deposited into Transco's ABSA account and a further ZAR300 000 later that day.

After transferring the money, Gatawa contacted Transco and was told to go back to Zimbabwe and wait for delivery of the pumps from DHL in three days.

To his surprise, Gatawa got a parcel that had cellphone chargers and realised they had been swindled.

Kadungure allegedly used part of the money to buy gas and transferred some into the account of Edward Teka.

Chivayo and Kadungure converted ZAR1 046 890 to their own use. The complainant in the second case is Dexter Nduna, the member of Parliament for Chegutu West constituency.

Using the same modus operandi, it is alleged Kadungure and Chivayo opened an ABSA bank account under the name Always on Pumps (Private) Limited.

They then approached Dexter Nduna claiming they were looking for mining pumps. Nduna was given an order for 20 T-90 Transco-Flo Helical Rotor pumps before being referred to Always on Pumps, which was purported to be a reputable supplier.

He lost ZAR535 000 in the deal as Chivayo and Kadungure became evasive.