Chris Mutangadura

High Court judge Justice Happias Zhou ruled that the transfer was flawed because the PG had no power to employ, deploy, assign or transfer NPA employees without the approval of the NPA board.

He said that even if the PG had the power to do so, transferring a whole chief law officer to a growth point station was as irrational as transferring a Professor of History from a university to teach the same subject at a primary school.^[3]

Transfer Challenge

In February 2019, Chris Mutangadura sued Prosecutor-General Kumbirai Hodzi over his decision to transfer him to a district office in Guruve.

Mutangadura was transferred to Guruve Magistrates Court, a decision he said was tantamount to a demotion. He approached the High Court seeking an order staying the transfer. In his chamber application, Mutangadura argued that Hodzi usurped the powers of the NPA board in violation of the provisions of the National Prosecuting Authority Act Section 6(1) (b) which provides that it is the function of the board to appoint members, assign and reassign duties.^[4]

High Court judge Justice Happias Zhou ruled that the transfer was flawed because the PG had no power to employ, deploy, assign or transfer NPA employees without the approval of the NPA board.

He said that even if the PG had the power to do so, transferring a whole chief law officer to a growth point station was as irrational as transferring a Professor of History from a university to teach the same subject at a primary school.^[3]

Abuse of Office Allegations

Chris Mutangadura, was arrested for criminal abuse of office involving a case before Bulawayo courts. Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) chairperson Justice Loice Matanda-Moyo ordered his release. She reportedly also shelved the docket.

When contacted for comment by NewsDay, Justice Matanda-Moyo denied that she intervened in the matter to protect Mutangadura. Responding to the matter, Matanda-Moyo said:

"...However, what I did in liaison with the Legal Services Department was to temporarily shelve the matter until the outcome of Kutamahufa’s case. We didn’t want to confuse the court by bringing the case to court when another case involving the same matter was on trial. That would jeopardise the case which is already before the courts."

Mutangadura was reported to ZACC after he allegedly meddled in a case which involved local businessman Lovemore Kutamahufa.^[5]

Chris Mutangadura was under investigation for corruptly aiding his business partner Lungisani Ncube to get a forensic examination of forged papers by a private handwriting expert, LT Nhari, after bypassing government expert, Clara Beatrice Tendai Gombakomba. Mutangadura had allegedly lied that Gombakomba had no capacity to examine the samples, an assertion she denied in her statement to the Zacc investigators.^[6]

References