Former City of Harare chief building inspector Roy Nyabvure, in court for breaching his employer’s housing procedures, has accused the State of refusing to release the transcript of the court proceedings to enable him to challenge his refusal of bail.
Without the transcript, Nyabvure’s lawyer Millicent Moyo said her client cannot challenge the court’s decision.
The accused is currently admitted at a private hospital under police custody after he was denied bail by magistrate Taurai Manuwere in a case where Pokugara Property, owned by businessman Ken Sharpe, reported him to police for criminal abuse of office.
The arrest was despite that Nyabvure is a State witness in another case where land developer George Katsimberis is suing Pokugara, Sharpe, Aleshina Tatiana and some council officials for perjury,
Nyabvure was arrested at court before he could testify against Sharpe after Acting Deputy Prosecutor-General Michael Reza wrote to the police claiming the former council official had finished testifying.
Nyabvure is both a State witness and an accused in a case based on the same facts.
According to the State, Nyabvure allegedly unprocedurally approved a building plan for the construction of a showhouse in Borrowdale, Harare, in 2018.
Nyabvure’s lawyer Millicent Moyo told the court that they had been denied access to transcripts from the day his client was denied bail.
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“I wish to place on record that we are facing challenges in accessing transcripts on proceedings of this matter. We have made requests for a photocopy of the record and transcripts, but initially, we were advised that there were power cuts and part of the proceedings were not recorded,” Moyo said.
“The transcriber advised that they were going to deal with that. When we followed up again, we were advised that the court writing was not clear, hence they failed to type. We were told that was the reason why the transcript is taking so long to be available.”
The State said it was in the process of recording a procedure statement from the City of Harare and asked that the matter be remanded to December 15 for a possible trial date.
Sharpe is embroiled in other legal disputes with Katsimberis.
Katsimberis is accused of having constructed a showhouse without approved architectural plans which resulted in it being demolished.
After the destruction of the showhouse, Katsimberis reported Pokugara Property and City of Harare officials for perjury and malicious damage to property.
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