Mpofu apologises, Chimombe offers restitution

Business partners Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe are expected to learn their fate on Monday after a Harare court heard final submissions in their US$7.7 million Presidential Goat Scheme fraud case.

The two were convicted of defrauding the State after their company, Blackdeck, received a US$87 million contract to supply 85,000 goats under the Presidential Goat Pass-On Scheme. Only 4,000 were delivered before the programme collapsed.

Mpofu took the stand during mitigation and issued a public apology, saying he regretted the failure of the animal distribution programme.

"I want to say to Zimbabweans I'm sorry and I regret that the Presidential Goat Scheme did not go as planned. Apology was always in my mind, starting from the President," he said.

He admitted that Blackdeck used forged tax documents and failed to conduct proper verification during the implementation of the project. However, Mpofu also suggested that responsibility lay with the company rather than himself personally.

"The court's judgment is final, but it still hurts me because I did not do it. It was Blackdeck," he told the court.

Asked whether he was willing to compensate the government, Mpofu said he had no money but would comply if ordered to do so.

Chimombe's lawyer, Ashiel Mugiya, said his client was prepared to make compensation, adding that Chimombe owned movable and immovable assets worth more than US$1 million, including an US$800,000 home in Borrowdale.

He urged the court to consider his client's status as a first offender and that he had 15 minor children and three wives depending on him.

Prosecutor Whisper Mabhaudhi argued for a severe sentence, submitting that the case involved large-scale abuse of public funds and disadvantaged vulnerable communities.

"They stole from the poorest of the poor," he said. "A non-custodial sentence can't be said to be even a slap on the wrist."

He told the court that the State attempted to recover funds under the Money Laundering Act but the pair resisted, and urged the bench not to impose a sentence below the presumptive 20-year threshold.

Mabhaudhi noted that former prosecutor Pardon Dziva received 19 years for a US$10,000 offence, warning that anything less for Mpofu and Chimombe would "be a betrayal of justice".

The prosecutor also accused the defence of dragging out proceedings through multiple constitutional objections and attacks on the judiciary.

Professor Lovemore Madhuku, representing Chimombe under instruction from Mugiya, argued that the Ministry of Agriculture carried part of the blame due to weak oversight. He urged the court to bar Chimombe from similar Government programmes going forward, instead of imposing an excessively harsh sentence.

After hearing arguments, the court postponed sentencing to Monday. The State is pushing for a sentence of up to 35 years, while the defence is seeking leniency, citing Mpofu's apology and Chimombe's willingness to repay the funds.