Business partners Clark Clever Makoni and his wife Beverly Aisha Ndonda Makoni are now free after the High Court overturned the fraud charges they had been facing, issuing a strongly-worded judgment that criticised the lower court for effectively “inventing” new allegations to keep the case alive.
The couple had approached the High Court challenging Regional Magistrate Stanford Mambanje’s refusal to acquit them on accusations that they defrauded former Reserve Bank governor Gideon Gono of US$100,000. They argued that the state’s case was built on flawed charges and lacked any meaningful evidence.
In their application, the Makonis accused the magistrate of grossly misdirecting himself by introducing new allegations midway through the trial — accusations that prosecutors had never made when the matter began.
Their lawyer, Admire Rubaya, argued that the lower court had improperly tried to rescue a crumbling case by reshaping it during proceedings.
Rubaya told the court that a magistrate “cannot attempt to repair a defective charge just to force accused persons onto their defence.”
High Court judge Justice Neville Wamambo Dembure agreed, castigating the magistrate for overstepping his mandate. He said the lower court had effectively taken on the role of the Prosecutor General by attempting to recreate the allegations — something he described as a serious procedural flaw.
“The magistrate’s findings resulted in the applicants being confronted with a charge that was never placed before the court at the start of trial,” he ruled, adding that only the state has the authority to define the particulars of an offence.
While higher courts usually avoid intervening in incomplete trials, Justice Dembure said this was an exceptional case, warning that the magistrate’s approach had set the matter on a “dangerous path.”
The case stemmed from a 2017 arrangement in which Gono hired the Makonis to oversee 15 properties in Chivhu, later expanding their mandate to include Mutare-based assets such as Valley Lodge (Pvt) Ltd.
Prosecutors had alleged that the couple used a fraudulent document to alter directorship records for Valley Lodge, thereby taking control of the business and its bank accounts and prejudicing Gono of ZWL$172 million — which he estimated to be around US$100,000.
The state claimed they replaced directors Ayoob Omar and Mohammed Hussein Omar with their own names.
However, the defence maintained that the case lacked substance, arguing that the prosecution’s own witnesses confirmed that the company’s directorship had remained unchanged since 2009 — a point Justice Dembure found compelling.
“All key witnesses conceded that the Valley Lodge directorship has not changed since 2009,” the defence highlighted, noting that this alone cleared the couple of wrongdoing.
The state also failed to prove that the Makonis withdrew US$70,000 alleged to have been siphoned from the lodge’s accounts.
Rubaya accused the prosecution of attempting to prop up a hopeless case, likening its conduct to “a footballer diving in the centre of the pitch and appealing for a penalty.”
With the High Court ruling that the charges were invalid and that the magistrate erred in law, the matter has collapsed — bringing the long-running case against the Makonis to an end.
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