By Courts correspondent
Prosecutor General Kumbirai Hodzi’s appeal against flamboyant Harare business Genius Kadungure’s acquittal on charges of fraud recently fell by the wayside after the top prosecutor’s application seeking leave to appeal was dismissed by the High Court.
Kadungure was last year charged alongside Wicknell Chivayo on two counts of fraud but the later was acquitted at the close of the State’s case while the former was acquitted on November 30, 2018 following a full trial.
Aggrieved by the regional magistrate’s decision, Hodzi applied for leave to appeal against Ginimbi’s acquittal but filed the application late, in contravention of the Magistrate’s Court Act, resulting in High Court judge Justice Benjamin Chikowero throwing out the application.
“…It seems to me preferable, to obviate the uncertainty and anxiety occasioned to person in the position of the first respondent (Genius), for the legislature to simply amend section 61 of the Magistrates Court Act to provide the timeframe within which the PG may appeal against a judgment of a magistrate court in a criminal matter as well as prescribing the period allowed to file an application for leave to so appeal,” Justice Chikowero said before dismissing the PG’s application.