Neville Sunungurai Mutsvangwa, the son of ZANU PF power couple Christopher and Monica Mutsvangwa will spend the weekend behind bars after his bail hearing was pushed to next week.
Mutsvangwa and his co-accused Ellis Majachani and Simbarashe Tichingana face charges of money laundering and dealing in foreign currency.
The full charges against the three were revealed when they appeared before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi this Friday, 10 May.
Count 1 – Contravening section 5(1)(a)(ii) if the Exchange Control Act Chapter: as read with Section 4 of the Exchange Control Regulations SI 109 of 1996 as amended by Section 2 of the Statutory Instrument 122A and Section 3 and 4(2) if SI 245 of 2018 – Dealing in Currency
Count 2 – Contravening Section 14 (1) of the Bank use Promotion and Suppression of Money Laundering Act Chapter 24:24 – Unlawful Trading in Cash
Count 3 – Money laundering as defined in section 8(1) of the Money Laundering and Proceeds of Crime Act – Money Laundering.
As reported by NewZimbabwe.com, appearing for the State, Thomas Chanakira opposed bail submitting that the suspects were facing very serious offences.
He argued that Money Laundering is very serious as the law provides that if convicted an accused will be supposed to pay a fine exceeding ZiG500 000 or an amount equivalent to the property involved and imprisonment of 25 years or both a fine and imprisonment. Chanakira further submitted:
The accused are a flight risk. Mutsvangwa has already demonstrated a propensity to flee and this warrants his incarceration pending trial.
When a team of detectives visited his place of residence in Mt Pleasant to arrest him, they were initially denied entry.
They had to seek the assistance of ZRP Marlborough and were again denied entry into his premises.
The police officers had to apply minimum force and gain entry into the premises by cutting the electric fence and scaling the gate.
The officers conducted searches but could not find him.
They continued searching the whole yard only to find Mutsvangwa hiding in between the security wall and some sacks stashed with waste materials.
There is no justification why he was hiding. There is no justification why he was not cooperating with the police. That is indicative of his unwillingness to stand trial.
It is sufficient indication that if given a chance, the accused will flee the jurisdiction of this court to avoid trial.
Chanakira also said Majachani and Tichingana do not deserve bail.
He said Tichingana misrepresented to the police that he was a neighbour when in fact he had connived with Majachani and Mutsvangwa to establish a company Mumba Money Transfer. Said Chanakira:
We submit that the accused have connections and interests outside Zimbabwe as evidenced by foreign bank accounts that they hold.
An Estonian identity card was discovered from Mutsvangwa so the State believes that if granted bail the accused will evade this court’s jurisdiction.
The prosecutor said 10 visa cards from South Africa, three from Zambia, and one from Mozambique were recovered which strengthens their fears of abscondment by the suspects.
He further argued that there is a likelihood of interference with witnesses and investigations because among the gadgets they seized were cellphones, laptops, sim cards, POS machines and debit cards.
Chanakira said if the suspects were released on bail, they will wipe all the data away, even without being in physical possession of the gadgets.
The investigating officer Blessing Mandizha corroborated the State’s submissions saying they waited for more than four and half hours before they gained entry into Mutsvangwa’s yard, only to find him hiding in trash.
Mutsvangwa is also accused of breaching the Telecommunications Act after he was found in possession of a Starlink kit which has not been licenced to operate in Zimbabwe.
Neville’s mother, Monica is the Minister of Women’s Affairs, Community, Small and Medium Enterprises Development and his father, Chris, is the ZANU PF spokesperson and chairman of the Zimbabwe National Liberation War Veterans Association.
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