CHIEF State Prosecutor Johannes Tomana faces a damaging lawsuit for allegedly failing to issue a certificate of private prosecution in the on-going Telecel Zimbabwe court saga.
Lawyers representing Telecel Zimbabwe in a matter in which company shareholder, Jane Mutasa, is accused of swindling the mobile firm of over $1, 7 million in airtime vouchers have been instructed to take the necessary legal action against Tomana.
The Prosecutor General is accused of declining to issue the certificate despite a Constitutional Court (ConCourt) ruling on 8 October 2014, ordering the private prosecution against Mutasa.
Advocate Isaiah Mureriwa of Scanlen and Holderness, representing Telecel Zimbabwe, said the Supreme Court judgment was upheld by the ConCourt but Tomana refused to order a private prosecution against Mutasa.
“The matter was argued on the 8th of October 2014 in the ConCourt and the Chief Justice (Godfrey Chidyausiku) delivered an ex-tempo judgment in favour of the respondent (Telecel Zimbabwe). The Chief Justice indicated that a written judgment was to be delivered in due course,” said Mureriwa in a letter addressed to the acting chief- registrar of the superior courts, Munamato Mutevedzi.
“The applicant (Tomana) has refused to comply with the Supreme Court judgment arguing that he will only do so once it has considered the reasoning of the ConCourt. In the premises the respondent remains prejudiced in not being able to execute its judgment. We are instructed to request that the written judgment be delivered as soon as practicable and convenient to the court,” wrote Mureriwa.
On 4 January 2015, Mutevedzi responded and urged Telecel Zimbabwe to take “appropriate legal action against Tomana”.
“The honourable Chief Justice does not accept that the validity of the Constitutional order is dependent on the reasons for judgment. A court order is a court order and does not depend on the validity on the reasons for such an order.
“In the light of the above order, it is entirely up to your client as to what legal action recourse it considers advisable to take,” Mutevedzi wrote exposing Tomana to the impending litigation.
Mutasa was arrested in 2010 along with the company’s then commercial director Naguib Omar for allegedly stealing airtime vouchers worth $1, 7 million.
However Tomana reportedly argues that an investigation had cleared the two of any criminal activity.
The government’s head of prosecution who also doubles up at the Attorney General contested the decision of the Supreme Court to issue a certificate of private prosecution at the ConCourt but lost.
