HARARE – Former foreign affairs minister Walter Mzembi had his bail revoked by a Harare magistrate on Tuesday, and his corruption trial will resume on July 1 with him coming from prison.
Mzembi was on trial for criminal abuse of office and theft of trust property in 2018 when he left the country, his lawyers said to seek medical attention in South Africa.
The 61-year-old did not return home until last week when he was arrested on three outstanding warrants for failing to attend trial.
Harare magistrate Donald Ndirowei heard from Mzembi’s legal team led by Killian Mandiki, who argued that the former minister was being treated for cancer.
Mandiki said Mzembi had decided to return after his health improved.
But Ndirowei said Mzembi was not so sick to an extent that he could not attend trial.
He ruled: “There is a gap as to what transpired in his medical report. The attached medical report would have worked if he had availed himself in 2020 not in 2025.
“It has not been proven that for all these years he was bed ridden such that he could not travel to Zimbabwe to cancel his warrants of arrest.
“His warrants of arrest are hereby confirmed, bail is revocked. The accused is hereby committed to prison pending trial.”
The magistrate also noted that Mzembi was the campaign manager for presidential candidate Saviour Kasukuwere, who announced his canpaign from his South Africa exile in 2023 before he was barred from standing by a court.
The charges against Mzembi stem from the disposal of televisions worth US$2 million while he was tourism minister.
The televisions bought for the 2010 FIFA World Cup fan parks were donated to Emmanuel Makandiwa’s mega church in Chitungwiza by Mzembi, who was arrested after the ouster of the late former President Robert Mugabe in a 2017 military coup.
