FORMER Vice-President Phelekezela Mphoko yesterday filed an application for the postponement of his corruption trial to allow him to directly approach the Constitutional Court (ConCourt) for recourse after his application for referral to that court was dismissed.
BY DESMOND CHINGARANDE
Mphoko’s lawyer Zibusiso Ncube asked Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya to postpone the trial which was expected to resume yesterday. Ncube said they wanted to approach the apex court and were only delayed to file that application because of the record that had not been transcribed.
He said they were waiting for the transcription of the rulings of four applications that Mphoko filed, which the magistrate dismissed.
“Your worship, we are seeking for the matter to be postponed to January 31st. I have been to the clerk of court and they told me that the transcribed record has not yet been finished and the ruling for the last application has also not been commissioned by you your worship,” Ncube said.
“We want to use the three rulings for the purpose of approaching the ConCourt and we are also seeking an interdict of the trial pending the finalisation of the matter at ConCourt. The application we are making is not one way but ConCourt does not entertain applications without a transcribed record.”
Mujaya dismissed Mphoko’s application for postponement and ordered him to submit his defence outline.
But Ncube said he had not yet prepared the defence outline as they were waiting for the ConCourt to determine whether Mphoko could stand trial for the case.
Ncube asked for a postponement to allow his colleague Advocate Tawanda Zhuwarara, who was attending another matter at the High Court, to arrive.
Zhuwarara managed to seek postponement on the promise that he would file Mphoko’s defence outline by the end of the day today to allow for the trial to resume on January 30.
The State summoned police officers Batsirai Mazowe and Alfred Guvakuva to testify on January 30.
Mphoko faces charges of unprocedurally causing the release of two Zinara executives from police custody when he was Acting President on July 14, 2016.
