Zvikomborero Parafini, Court Reporter
THE trial Genius ‘Ginimbi’ Kadungure on tax evasion charges failed to start yesterday at the instance of his lawyer who was engaged at the Supreme Court.
Kadungure, who is also representing his company Piko Trading as the second accused in the matter appeared before Deputy Chief Magistrate Chrispen Mberewere and was represented by Brighton Pabwe, who was standing in for Jonathan Samkange.
Pabwe made a two-fold application for postponement on the basis that Ginimbi’s lead counsel, Samkange, was held up in the Supreme Court where he was representing Joseph Chinotimba.
He further advised the court that in the interim from the last date they were in court, they had engaged ZIMRA to agree on an out of court settlement.
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“On the last day the matter was in court, a long remand was given to allow for ZIMRA and the National Prosecuting Authority to engage in a discussion to settle the matter out of court, that has been done and we have managed to cover a lot of groundwork.
“The minor impediment we encountered was that Ginimbi has been in custody on another matter since February 4, the other thing is that the response from ZIMRA was only made available to me yesterday, the response was encouraging that a possible settlement can be made.
“I had a brief discussion with the accused who is still in custody and he’s willing to comply with the proposal put forward by ZIMRA but for him to do so he will be able to be out of custody,” said Pabwe.
The State represented by Andrew Kumire and Lovett Masuku didn’t oppose the application but expressed displeasure over Samkange’s failure to notify the State on time that he wasn’t unable to commence trial yet their witnesses were in attendance.
Magistrate Mberewere granted the postponement saying that in as much as they wanted the trial to commence, it was the court’s duty to uphold the rights of an accused person by allowing him to be represented by his counsel of choice.
The matter was remanded to February 28 for trial commencement.
– HMETRO