The Supreme Court has dismissed the appeal challenging the High Court’s order to release the vehicles of businessman Justice Mayor Wadyajena and his company, Mayor Logistics, which were seized in 2022.
In an interview with The Herald after the ruling, Wadyajena’s lawyer, Oliver Marwa, said that the appeal by the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) and the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) was dismissed with costs due to its lack of merit. Said Marwa:
The outcome was that the Supreme Court ruled that the appeal by the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe, which was contesting the High Court order for NPAZ and ZACC to release the property that was seized by ZACC and the NPAZ from Mayor Logistics and Mayor Wadyajena lacked merit.
When they brought the matter to the Supreme Court, they wanted the Supreme Court to rule that what the High Court had done was wrong.
But the Supreme Court agreed with us that they had no mandate in keeping that property because the High Court judgment by Justice Kwenda was clear that they had 30 days within which to keep that property, but they exceeded two years.
They had been talking about criminal investigations in the matter that they have to visit America to verify how these properties were acquired, but they have not done anything.
This led the Magistrates Court to refuse further remand of Mayor Wadyajena and Mayor Logistics on the charge of fraud and money laundering way back last year. There has been no traction with the ZACC investigation.
There has been no end in sight for the intended prosecution of our clients. So our clients have always maintained that they were innocent, that those properties were theirs and they were legitimately acquired.
So, in the end, justice has won. We have been vindicated by the Supreme Court.
In August 2024, the High Court ordered the return of Justice Mayor Wadyajena’s fleet of vehicles, which were seized by ZACC in 2022.
The seized vehicles, including haulage trucks and a Lamborghini SUV, were part of an investigation into allegations that the former Gokwe-Nembudziya MP (ZANU PF) defrauded the Cotton Company of Zimbabwe (COTTCO).
Wadyajena, along with six others, including some COTTCO managers, was arrested and charged in 2022 with three counts of money laundering and three counts of fraud.
They were accused of defrauding COTTCO of millions of US dollars by creating false invoices for the supply of bale ties to the state-owned company.
Prosecutors alleged that the funds obtained from these activities were laundered through various companies in which Wadyajena and his associates had interests.
On February 6, 2023, the magistrates’ court refused a further remand, advising the state to proceed via summons. However, ZACC retained possession of the vehicles, claiming they needed 30 days to conduct parallel investigations.
Wadyajena subsequently applied for and received a High Court order for the return of his vehicles. A judgment in his favour was issued in May, but ZACC appealed the decision to the Supreme Court.
In response, Wadyajena filed an urgent High Court application for leave to execute the judgment while awaiting the Supreme Court’s determination.
In his ruling, Justice Tawnda Chitapi agreed with Wadyajena’s legal team that the continued seizure of his trucks was prejudicing him of potential revenue.
The judge said, “Trucks are meant to be mobile and not be parked”.
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