Former Local Government Minister, Ignatius Chombo, has appeared in court facing charges of abuse of office and fraud involving the parceling out of land in Harare and Zvimba communal lands.
According to the state-controlled Herald newspaper, Chombo, who appeared before regional magistrate Stanford Mambanje and was not asked to plead, is facing five counts of abuse of office.
He allegedly asked people to deposit varying sums of money for land purchases into his Chombo Housing Co-operative bank account, allocated himself over 125 stands in Harare and parceled out land through his companies - Comverol Enterprise (Pvt) Ltd, Cayford and Cavford (Pvt) Ltd in Carrick Creagh Farm in Harare without paying for the land.
Chombo also allegedly sold state land and instructed government officials to sign a deep of settlement for Stoneridge Farm for Phillip Chiyangwa’s Pinnacle Holdings without Cabinet approval.
State land and Order Farm to Sensitive Investments (Pvt) Limited.
The former Cabinet Minister is also alleged to have instructed officers at Ministry of Local Government to sign a Deed of Settlement for Stoneridge Farm for Phillip Chiyangwa’s Pinnacle Holdings without Cabinet approval.
He is represented by Professor Lovemore Madhuku, Tungamirai Muganhiri and Munyaradzi Bwanya.
His lawyers were unreachable as they were not responding to calls on their mobile phones. Chiyangwa was also unavailable for comment.