BULAWAYO – Bulawayo’s deputy mayor Edwin Ndlovu was acquitted Wednesday of allegations that he demanded a US$20,000 bribe from a company seeking land to build a cement plant, after a magistrate ruled the State’s case had collapsed.
Magistrate Richard Ramaboea said the prosecution’s key exhibit — a handwritten document allegedly linking Ndlovu to the bribe scheme — was unreliable.
Prosecutors had alleged that Ndlovu and Ward 3 councillor Mpumelelo Moyo, chair of the Finance and Development Committee, solicited the bribe from Labenmon Investments in exchange for facilitating the approval of a 5.6-hectare piece of land in Cowdray Park.
The State relied heavily on the testimony of forensic handwriting expert Kurauone Madziranyika, who claimed samples taken from Ndlovu matched the disputed document listing councillors set to benefit from the payout. But contradictions emerged after Labenmon representative Tsitsi Mapfumo told the court she had authored the first part of the document.
“The only evidence linking the accused to the offence was exhibit number five. Yet the expert concluded the whole document was written by one person. If we accept that, then both the accused and the witness share the same handwriting, which is impossible,” Ramaboea said in his ruling.
The Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) had mounted a sting operation in 2024, leading to the arrest of Ndlovu and Moyo shortly after they allegedly took possession of the money at Mapfumo’s house.
With Ndlovu cleared, focus now shifts to Moyo, who will present his defence on August 25 through lawyer Prince Butshe Dube. He is expected to explain why he was at the complainant’s house and why two witnesses claimed to have seen him with US$20,000 in cash.
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