Zimbabwe’s prosecutor general has filed an High Court application seeking an order to compel former police commissioner general Augustine Chihuri to explain how he accumulated his wealth amid reports that he allegedly converted public funds of up to US$32 for his personal use.
According to the state-controlled newspaper, Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi is also seeking an order to freeze Augustine Chihuri’s assets in Zimbabwe.
Chihuri, who backed the late former president Robert Mugabe during the 2017 defacto military coup that saw the rise of President Emmerson Mnangagwa to the country’s top political position, allegedly diverted public funds being handled by the police to various companies owned by his wife, Isobel Halima Khan Chihuri and other family members, and close associates.
The newspaper reports that some of the companies where police funds were deposited belonged to fictitious individuals and non-existent addresses.
Chihuri has not yet responded to the court application with indications that he is now living outside the country.
The prosecutor general wants the former police chief to explain how he acquired some of his properties that include seven residential stands, four vehicles, two combine harvesters, six tractors, two planters, three motorbikes and a boom spray. Some of these implements are at Chihuri’s farms in Shamva and Darwendale.