By Tendai Kamhungira
HARARE – Businessman Frederick Mutanda has filed a lawsuit against the government of Zimbabwe for wrongful arrest on charges of breaching the Exchange Control Act.
Mutanda, who alleges there was an attempt to kill him, further claimed charges against him were malicious and meant to silence him against speaking out against atrocities after independence in western Zimbabwe that left about 20 000 dead in one of the longest sieges in modern history, according to human rights groups.
In a Constitutional Court application filed on Monday, Mutanda is seeking to recover millions of dollars after CBZ bank auctioned off his personal property and goods held at Caps Holdings.
In the application, Mutanda cited the government of Zimbabwe, CBZ Bank Limited, FBC Bank Limited and the Sheriff of the High Court as respondents.
In May last year, the Constitutional Court ordered Mutanda’s retrial. This was after he had approached the highest court in the land arguing that his right to a fair trial within a reasonable time was violated.
In his current application, Mutanda claims his prosecution was based on character assassination, which led to several months of State-driven and State-sponsored destruction of his reputation.
“This official dehumanisation preceded my physical assault and a prelude to violence to annihilate me,” he said in his application.
“Hit men had been sent to kill me and then ordered to report my demise to their master. The said hit men validated this and I informed the Zimbabwe Republic Police and the courts accordingly.
“I have concluded that the factors in relation to the timing of the charges demonstrated ‘to a sufficient degree’ that ‘the actual purpose of the impugned measures is to silence or punish me for speaking up on the 1982 to 1987 (Gukurahundi) atrocities and prevent the dissemination of the truth that the first respondent (government of Zimbabwe) tried to conceal for more than 25 years,” he said.
Mutanda now wants the Constitutional Court to declare that his arrest was unlawful and malicious. He said the section of the law that he was being charged under did not disclose an offence and should therefore be declared a nullity.
“Furthermore, applicant and his enterprise including Caps is entitled to damages and compensation for properties dissipated, seized and expropriated, quantified in documents field of record by the respondent(s) or any of the respondent’s agents including the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe for orchestrating the unlawful and malicious conduct of, unlawful and malicious detention by the Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission, and the malicious prosecution of applicant,” he said.
Among other issues, Mutanda is seeking an order for payment of $3,6 million for Caps assets and $1,2 million for his family assets that were auctioned by CBZ Bank Limited.
He also wants the return of $950 000 paid to FBC, plus a further $500 000 paid to CBZ to stop the disposal of Caps Manufacturing Limited factory premises.
Mutanda is accused of having committed the alleged offence in August 2011. It is alleged that he instructed Justin Majaka to apply to the Medicine Control Authority of Zimbabwe (MCAZ), for a change of principal for 50 drug formulae (dossiers) from Caps Rallies, Harare to Caps International, Johannesburg.
It is alleged in October 2011, MCAZ registered the 50 dossiers with Caps International South Africa as the new principal and owners, the effect of which ownership of the drug formulae shifted from Zimbabwe to South Africa.
It is alleged that the expropriation of the drug formulae which are classified under intellectual property rights or patents had no approval of the Exchange Control Authority and the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe. Daily News
