Mliswa implicates Chihuri in looting scandal

By Tichaona Sibanda

Controversial ZANU PF businessman, Temba Mliswa, on Tuesday implicated Police Commissioner Augustine Chihuri as one of the individuals who bought property from him that he allegedly looted from white owned farms.

The Harare magistrates’ court was left stunned when Mliswa revealed that his company sold generators to Chihuri, former ZANU PF chairman for Mashonaland East Paddy Zhanda and a company owned by Defence Force Commander General Constantine Chiwenga.

Mliswa was in court to answer separate charges that between 2002 and 2003 he stole six generators from white farmers in Karoi. He denies the charges and said his company was in the business of buying and selling farming equipment.

He was in court last week facing the first of his two charges which related to allegations that he fraudulently acquired farming equipment valued at $32 million from Karoi and KweKwe farmers.

The Commercial Farmers Union (CFU) issued a statement over the weekend saying the total value of farming equipment looted during the controversial land redistribution exercise amounts to US$20 billion.

Observers said the revelations by Mliswa will give a new twist to the land grab exercise as thousands of new black farm owners’ looted farm equipment and sold it for profit. Many more may now face the danger of facing prosecution for handling or receiving such property.

Mliswa’s lawyers appeared in court Wednesday for a ruling challenging his detention in policy custody. But the court denied bail and Mliswa was further remanded in custody to 27th July for trial. However his defence team said they would make and urgent application to the Supreme court on Thursday seeking his freedom.

Mliswa’s sister Mary told SW Radio Africa that her brother was being treated harshly by the police for comments he made two weeks ago that Chihuri was corrupt.

‘We are surprised that the police are bringing back these charges, the same charges that he has faced before. The charges were thrown out by the courts then so we are surprised to see them being revived when the supposedly complainants left Zimbabwe to live in exile years ago,’ Mary said.

In recent weeks Mliswa has accused the Zimbabwean police chief of perpetrating human rights abuses. He accused Chihuri of using police apparatus to hound him out of a vehicles repairs company, Noshio Motors, in which he is entangled in an ownership dispute with co-owner Paul Westwood.

The militant Mliswa has been granted bail twice before and on each occasion police have moved in before he left the court buildings to arrest him and press new charges.

Reports say the case has also opened a can of worms as displaced white farmers are now demanding the arrest of top ZANU PF officials, including some in the presidium, for looting their property during the violent and bloody invasions. They also want the looted property returned. SW Radio Africa

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