HARARE – Former Zimbabwe Power Company (ZPC) board chairman Stanley Kazhanje, jailed for three years on corruption charges last month, was freed on bail pending appeal on Wednesday.
Kazhanje, who was serving his sentence at Chikurubi Maximum Prison, was granted $1,000 bail by the Harare High Court.
A judge said his appeal had prospects of success.
As part of his bail conditions, he was ordered to surrender his passport, reside at his Mt Pleasant home and to report every Friday at a police station.
The former ZPC boss was convicted of taking a US$10,000 bribe from Intratrek Zimbabwe, a company which had been awarded a US$172 million tender to build a 100-megawatt solar power plant in Gwanda.
Prosecutors said Kazhanje was paid the money to influence him to stop the ZPC board from cancelling the tender after Intratrek, which is owned by controversial businessman Wicknell Chivayo, was accused of breaching its contract.
Kazhanje maintained that the money was paid for past engineering consultancy services he had performed for Intratrek. The court heard he had not declared this information and had concealed the payment from Intratrek.
He is appealing against both conviction and sentence.
