Reza used 'Defective letter' to arrest witness in Sharpe perjury case

It has emerged Deputy Prosecutor-General Michale Reza signed the letter he used to cause the arrest of a state witness in a case in which businessman Ken Sharpe is accused of perjury and malicious damage to property as the Chief Law officer-Harare Province.


Harare City Council's regional building instructor Roy Nyabvure was arrested on Tuesday last week after testifying in court, but Reza's letter claimed he was no longer a state witness because he had finished testifying and had already been cross-examined.

Nyabvure was charged with criminal abuse of office because he allegedly did not circulate a housing plan used by businessman Georgios Katsimberis to construct a show house in Borrowdale on behalf of Sharpe.

Whether it was by mistake of design, Reza signed the letter as Chief Law Officer, Harare Province and went on to copy the letter to several people including himself, the Deputy Prosecutor-General.Other people copied are the acting prosecutor-general, Special Anti-Corruption Unit, Police Anti-Corruption Unit, clerk of court regional, Harare magistrates' court and Mutumbwa Mugabe & Partners – Legal Practitioners was produced as an exhibit during the bail hearing. 

Most of the people copied were however not served with the letter that was smuggled into court with only one signature. The letter, dated 14 October, was directed to the officer in charge of the police's Commercial Crime Unit. 

Reza, in the letter deliberately lied that Nyabvure had finished testifying and had been cross-examined in order to cause his arrest. 

Nyabvure was arrested by police officers who did not have an arresting warrant when coming out of court where he was meant to testify against Sharpe, but the matter was postponed to November 28.

Pokugara Properties, owned by Sharpe and not the Harare City Council, is the complainant in the matter where Nyabvure is accused of abusing the municipality's procedures. Nyabvure is a state witness in the case where Katsimberis is suing Sharpe, his aide Michael John Van Blerk and top Harare City Council officials for perjury and malicious damage to property.

The case arose after the local authority demolished Kastimberis' show house in Borrowdale, Harare on allegations that it was built using a fake plan.

Sharpe and his company, Pokugara Properties, council officials Mandla Ndebele, Isaiah Zvenyika Chawatama, Samuel Nyabezi and Lasten Taonezvi are accused of malicious damage to property after they destroyed Katsimberis' house.

The council employee is also an accused person in a case where Katsimberis is being accused by Pokugara of fraud based on the same facts in which he is a witness against Sharpe's company.

Nyabvure has already testified in two cases consisting of perjury charges against Van Blerk and the Harare City Council and was due to testify on the malicious damage to property under case 1592/08/19 when the police arrested him. Before his arrest, Nyabvure had reported Sharpe's aide Tatiana Aleshina to the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission claiming that she has been interfering with him since 12, 2019 when she wrote a letter to the town clerk Hoseah Chisango ordering him to reign in on him. 

This was after Nyabvure gave a statement to the police against Van Blerk on the previous day.Katsimberis has approached the Constitutional Court challenging a September 2022 ruling by High Court judge Justice Siyabonga Paul Musithu dismissing his application to end his parallel prosecution, a situation he is appearing in court as the witness and at the same time as the accused, based on the same facts.

The land developer argues the parallel prosecution relying on the same facts has resulted in the harassment of witnesses to weaken his case. 

Pokugara once caused the arrest of Katsimberis on the same facts on a matter he is a witness against Sharpe.

Top lawyer Tendai Biti has also accused Reza of acting partially in all cases involving Sharpe and his associates.

See the letter below..