Attorney General arrested and suspended on corruption charges

By Tichaona Sibanda
8 November 2007

Police in Harare this week arrested Attorney General Sobusa Gula-Ndebele on allegations of misconduct after he met and allegedly tried to broker a deal with a ‘fugitive’ banker on the government’s most wanted list.

Gula-Ndebele was on Tuesday charged with contravening sections of the Criminal Law, which deals with the conduct of public officers. Police also recorded a warned and cautioned statement before releasing him. He has also reportedly been suspended from office.

Police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena on Wednesday said charges against Gula-Ndebele arose from a meeting he held with the former NMB deputy-managing director James Mushore when he visited the country in September.

Mushore and his co-directors fled to London in 2004 fearing arrest on allegations of externalising foreign currency. He has since been based in the United Kingdom until his latest trip to Zimbabwe last month. Allegations against the AG are that in September he met Mushore at a Harare restaurant where he allegedly assured him that he would not be prosecuted if he returned home. Reserve bank governor Gideon Gono is also on record advocating for an amnesty for all those who fled the country fearing prosecution over the externalisation of foreign currency.

The police spokesman said the AG was aware that Mushore was on a wanted list and that there was a warrant for his arrest, but took no action. Mushore was able to fly back to the UK and was only arrested on his second visit to Zimbabwe in October.
It is also known that the AG is aligned to retired army general Solomon Mujuru and that the whole saga could also be linked to the ruling party’s succession battle. Newsreel is reliably informed that Mushore is a close relative of the Mujuru’s and was the family banker before he fled to the UK.

But observers suspect Gula-Ndebele’s arrest was politically motivated. They pointed a finger at his boss, Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa. The two don’t see eye-to-eye after the AG led a campaign to prosecute Chinamasa after he was charged in August 2006 for trying to pervert the course of justice. Lawyer Daniel Molokela said charges against Gula-Ndebele were flimsy and would not stand in a court of law.

Chinamasa was accused of trying to stop a prosecution witness, James Kaunye, from testifying in a case against the Minister of State for National Security, Didymus Mutasa, who had been accused of inciting public violence in Rusape, his home area.

It is believed the political heavyweights behind the plot to arrest Gula-Ndebele were incensed when Manicaland area prosecutor Levison Chikafu, who handled the Mutasa case, was recently acquitted on corruption charges levelled against him by the state following his failed attempt to get Mutasa arrested in connection with the 2004 political violence case.

At the time, Chikafu told Newsreel that he was being victimised for having prosecuted Chinamasa and calling for the arrest of Mutasa.
Chikafu, with the full backing of Gula-Ndebele shot to prominence last year after he led a series of other legal proceedings against political heavyweights besides Chinamasa and Mutasa when other prosecutors shied away.

He ruffled a number of cabinet ministers’ feathers and at one point suggested in court that Mutasa should have his ‘wings clipped’. He also
wrote to the police, directing them to investigate four Cabinet Ministers accused of stripping the once lucrative Kondozi Estate of farming equipment.