HARARE – A magistrate failed to hand down judgment on former cabinet minister Ignatius Chombo’s bail application on Thursday saying he needed more time to consider all the submissions.
Harare magistrate Stanford Mambanje sent Chombo back to remand prison and promised to make a ruling on Friday after failing to honor an earlier promise.
“I thought I would be through by today but I failed to do as promised because I had less time to go through the submissions,” Mambanje said, keeping Chombo in detention for a third day.
“However, I’m certain that I will be done today so will definitely hand down my ruling tomorrow.”
Chombo is charged with fraud plus five cases of criminal abuse of office.
Prosecutors are in opposition of his release arguing the former minister is a flight risk and that he is likely to temper with State witnesses.
But his defense team says he is a good candidate for bail.
Prosecutors say while still local government minister, Chombo duped desperate home-seekers to deposit money into his bank account after promising them residential stands which he never delivered.
The former cabinet minister also allegedly used his influence to amass vast tracts of land, including 125 residential stands at Hydon Farm, Zvimba Rural District, and five low-density stands at Philadephia farm near Harare.
The State alleges Chombo took several farms in Harare district and registered them under his companies including, Comverol Enterprise, Cayford, and Cavford (Pvt) Limited knowing full well that the farms had neither been paid for nor handed over to government.
He denies all the charges.
