The Sunday News
Richard Muponde, Gwanda Correspondent
FORMER Zimbabwe Miners Federation president Trynos Nkomo was on Friday dragged to court for allegedly threatening to shoot his mining partner and defrauding Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Local Government, Public Works and National Housing Engineer George Mlilo of $6 500 in a mining claim deal.
Nkomo of West Nicholson is being charged with fraud, pointing a firearm and threats of violence under Criminal Report Books (CRBs) 1382/16 and 1385/16 respectively. However, the matter did not get before a magistrate as the prosecution directed that his dockets should be married together so that the case is tried under one docket.
Charges against Nkomo are that sometime in September and at Cindillera B Stamp Mill, he pointed a firearm at his mining partner, Mr Sifanjani Moyo popularly known as Bhebhe in a dispute over gold ore which was being milled by detectives from the Gwanda Minerals Section at the behest of Gwanda area prosecutor Mr Blessing Gundani.
This was after Nkomo had reported Mr Moyo to the police accusing him of stealing 40 tonnes of the ore and was being kept as an exhibit. Nkomo had allegedly gone to the stamp mill with the intention of taking away the milled gold before Mr Moyo confronted him.
He allegedly pulled his firearm in the presence of the police officers including the officer-in-charge of Minerals section a Detective Inspector Mtungwazi threatening to kill Mr Moyo before he was whisked away by a female colleague driving in a silver Isuzu Twin cab.
Three weeks ago, Nkomo was also brought before the court facing a similar offence of allegedly pointing a firearm at his girlfriend but Mr Gundani also referred it back to the police for further investigations and the matter has not been brought back to court.
In the case of Engineer Mlilo, Nkomo allegedly defrauded him on the pretext that he was selling him a gold claim in West Nicholson. However, Nkomo later got wind that Mlilo’s son Innocent had started operations at the site and confronted him arguing the claim was not the one he had sold to Eng Mlilo. Nkomo and Mr Moyo are embroiled in a legal battle for the control of a rich gold mining claim in West Nicholson after the two partnered following Eng Mlilo’s eviction.
The matter went to the High Court in Harare where Nkomo filed an urgent chamber application seeking an interdict barring Mr Moyo from visiting the mine and also seeking control of gold ore and 760 grammes of gold. However, Justice Hlekani Mwayera dismissed his application with costs and also queried his mining papers.
Two days later he rushed to the Bulawayo High Court with the same issue and filed an Ex Parte application and was granted a provisional order by Justice Martin Makonese. The matter was argued on Tuesday and is awaiting judgment.
The two who have valid prospecting licences are also set to appear at the Gwanda magistrate’s courts next week jointly charged with contravening the Mines and Minerals Act, the Gold Trade Act and the Customs Milling Plants Act.
Nkomo and Mr Moyo are alleged to have illegally extracted gold ore, transported it to the milling plant and dealt in 4,9 kilogrammes of gold without proper documentation between August and September this year.
Nkomo is not new to the courts as he was once arraigned for fraud after he allegedly duped his Botswana business partners of $135 000 in a mining deal. Two years ago he was fined $200 or 30 days in prison for deliberately supplying false information to detectives from the Minerals section who wanted to see his papers for Bunny Luck Mine.
He claimed he was in a partnership with the then Vice-President Joice Mujuru and the papers for the mine were with her. But former VP Mujuru disowned him leading to his conviction by Gwanda magistrate, Ms Sheila Nazombe.
Twitter: @richardmuponde
