Mafume's trial postponed

Harare Mayor Jacob Mafume, accused of illegally allocating residential stands to his sister and his law firm's secretary in Harare and then attempting to bribe a witness to testify in his corner, should be given his trial date next month.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Ngoni Nduna yesterday postponed Mafume's cases to August 9 when the State is expected to furnish him with the trial date.

In the bribery case, Mafume was arrested on December 14 after he allegedly attempted to bribe Edgar Dzehonye to testify in his matter and was charged with contempt of court.

Mafume is also being charged with criminal abuse of office after he allegedly allocated Westlea stands to his sister Rotina Mafume and his law firm's secretary, Rutendo Muvuti, without following due process.

In March last year Mafume allegedly called housing director Admore Nhekairo asking him to allocate residential stands to the two, allegedly telling Nhekairo that his sister had not benefited from any council stand. But council had already closed interviews for prospective home-seekers in the area so Mafume allegedly used his influence as a councillor to push other employees to allocate the stands.

According to the State, it was later discovered that Rotina and Muvuti were not on the waiting list despite each having been allocated stands with intrinsic value of an $219 938 and that the numbers on the waiting list used for them allegedly belonged to other people.