A 42 year old Zimbabwe Republic Police officer has been arraigned before the courts on allegations of bribery and criminal abuse of office.
Thomas Mabgwe an attested member of the ZRP appeared at the Harare Magistrate Court facing bribery charges amounting to US$78 000 after receiving two stands as ‘protection fee’ from an accused person.
It is the State case that sometime in September 2015, Mabgwe then stationed at Police General Headquarters Police Intelligence and attached to Harare Magistrate Court as a Public Prosecutor went to Delatfin Civil engineering Pvt Ltd where he met director of the company Felix Munyaradzi.
Delatfin was involved in clandestine sale of residential stands and double allocation of the same at Hydon Farm in Harare and this resulted in a number of civil suits and criminal matters.
In a bid to get protection against pending criminal cases Munyaradzi gave Mabgwe two stands valued at US$78 000 and an agreement of sale was reached between the two.
The State alleges that Mabgwe had no right to receive any consideration or gift from Munyaradzi.
“The accused (Mabgwe) did not pay any land intrinsic price for two stands and had no right to receive any consideration or gift, for doing or no to do (i.e. offering protection to Felix Munyaradzi to ensure that he is not arrested or prosecuted), knowing or realising that there was a real risk that such gift or consideration was not due to him in terms of any agreement or arrangement between him and his principal or as a public officer in the exercise of his function as such, intentionally does anything that is contrary to or inconsistent with his duty as a public officer for the purposes of showing favor or disfavor to anyone.” read the charge sheet
The State opposed bail citing that the accused was flight risk and might use his influence as a police officer to interfere with witnesses.
The Magistrate remanded Mabgwe in custody and will appear in Court after investigations are completed in two weeks.
