Convicted former ZANU PF legislator Munyaradzi Kereke who is serving a prison sentence for raping a 11 year old girl is living large in Chikurubi maximum prison while other inmates are struggling under stringent jail conditions.
Three former top officers from Chikurubi Maximum Prison told the court yesterday that Kereke was being allowed to visit his home, enjoying conjugal rights deprived of other inmates.
The three, former Chikurubi Maximum Prison officer-in-charge Nobert Chomurenga and his then top juniors, Cephas Chiparausha and Tonderai Mutiwaringa, are on trial at Harare Magistrates Court for receiving more than $10 500 from the chicken project without telling their superior.
The circumstances are that when Kereke was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in July 2016, he was committed to Chikurubi Maximum Prison where he then met the three top prison officers.
On September 25, 2017, it is alleged Chomurenga and Chiparausha, who were acting in connivance with Mutiwaringa, in their personal capacities, entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with Humanity Earth Trust, which has links with Kereke.
It is alleged that from September 25, 2017 to August 2018, Humanity Earth Trust provided a total of 3 000 birds, feed, medicines and other sanitary requirements for the chicken-rearing project.
Further allegations are that the trio, as part of the agreement, provided space and labour in the form of prisoners, but for their personal benefit.
When the chickens were being sold, the customers paid money into Chiparausha’s EcoCash account and he received a total of $8 282. In December 2017, Mutiwaringa, who took over as officer-in-charge after the promotion and transfer of Chomurenga, received $2 252 from Chiparausha through his EcoCash account being proceeds of the project.
In their defence, Chomurenga, Chiparausha and Mutiwaringa told the court that all their actions were with the ZPCS Commissioner General Paradzai Zimondi’s blessings and they were only arrested after his fall-out with Kereke.
Last year, independent Norton legislator Temba Mliswa once questioned rumors that Kereke’s wife had been reported pregnant to the rape convict but the matter was never treated seriously
