Govt distances self from Nyagura case
GOVERNMENT says it is not the complainant in the case in which University of Zimbabwe Vice-Chancellor Levi Nyagura is accused of illegally awarding former First Lady Grace Mugabe a PhD, saying that it never made a complaint to ZACC and does not intend to.
According to the State papers, The Ministry of Higher and Tertiary Education, Science and Technology Development’s permanent secretary is cited as representing the complainant.
However, in a letter dated February 28 addressed to the Chief Government legal advisor Attorney-General Advocate Prince Machaya, the ministry lodged a complaint against Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) saying by citing the wrong person as the complainant, the court papers were defective.
The letter was signed by Mr L. Mudyiwa in his capacity as the acting permanent secretary.
“The ministry would like to register its complaint against ZACC. . . we note from court papers that ZACC has been citing the permanent secretary as the complainant in cases involving the University of Zimbabwe Vice Chancellor as the accused.
“The ministry would like to state that it is not aware of the issues and neither was it involved in making complaints to ZACC or being involved in making any complainants to ZACC or being involved in investigations leading to the accused being arraigned before the court for criminal abuse of office.
“The ministry would want to bring it to your attention as the chief Government legal advisor that the ministry is not involved in academic issues. The issue is purely academic, which is the domain of the university through the council of senate,” read the part of the letter.
The ministry further indicated that it was not qualified to comment or to make a determination or give an opinion on whether what Nyagura did was a criminal offence or not, adding that it was supposed to be decided by the University Council and senate.
“The ministry, therefore, would like you as our lawyer to set the record straight since this is an issue which is already before the court. The ministry should not be cited as representing the complainant in the court papers.
“In other words, the court papers are defective in as far as they cite the wrong person as representing the complainant. The ministry never complained and does not intend to complain.
“The ministry respects academic freedom and is of the view that this is an issue, which must be resolved by the court without its involvement or by the university itself without involving the ministry at this stage,” read the letter.
Nyagura is being represented by advocate Lewis Uriri and has since made an application before magistrate Ms Tilda Mazhande to have the investigating officer called to the witness stand.
Nyagura is arguing that there is no reasonable suspicion warranting his placement on remand.
“The investigating officer must, when the reasonableness of his suspicion is challenged, take oath and justify the same.
“He must be cross-examined. Only then can the court establish in the exercise of judicial power whether there was reasonable suspicion,” Mr Uriri said.
Prosecutor Mr Michael Reza is expected to respond to Nyagura’s application today and the court will make its determination on March 15.