Martin Muleya.
Mutare- Anglican Diocese of Manicaland Bishop Eric Ruwona who was freed on $15 000 bail appeared today at Mutare magistrate court in the company of his lawyers and congregants from his church.
Ruwona is facing fraud charges as defined in Section 136 of the Criminal Codefication and Reform Act (Chapter 9:23).
He is represented by Ashelle Mutungura of Mutungura and Partners as well as Passmore Nyakureba and Kubaya of Maunga and Maanda Legal Practitioners.
The man of cloth was arrested by Zimbabwe Anti-Corruption Commission (ZACC) team a fortnight ago at the Diocesan premises.
The State led by prosecutor Tirivanhu Mutyasira told the court that the accused person and his three accomplices who are still at large hatched a plan to defraud Anglican Diocese of Manicaland thousands of United States dollars.
“Anglican Diocese of Manicaland is a group of Anglican churches dotted in Manicaland province and also comprises of different congregants that pledges their gifts in monetary and non-monetary form for the day to day development of the Anglican Diocese of Manicaland.
“In addition to different churches dotted around the province of Diocese of Manicaland it has six boarding schoolsa and several day schools that contribute 15 percent of fees collected to the church development levy account. The Anglican Diocese of Manicaland is guided by the church constitution and Canons of the Province of Central Africa established in 1996, in handling the public funds pledged by the church congregants.
“To achieve their plan, on 26 February 2016, the accused and his accomplices fraudulently applied for a loan of US $100 000 from Agribank Mutare branch in the name of Anglican Diocese of Mutare church, misrepresenting that they wanted to construct St. Catherine’s Girls’ High School in Rusape and to purchase vehicle for the Bishop.
“The accused person and his accomplices committed to Agribank to take the loan under a mortgage bond of a certain piece of land situated in Mutare District stand number 78 Mutare Township as collateral security without the knowledge of the Standing Committee and the church congregants. As a result of the misrepresentation the loan was approved and the accused took the money.
“On February 2016 the accused and his accomplices fraudulently applied for another lpan of US $350 000 from Agribank Mutare using the same collateral security without the knowledge of the Church Standing Committee, purporting they wanted to construct St. Catherine’s Girls’ High School and to purchase the vehicle of the Bishop. The loan was approved and the accused took the money.
“The accused person and his accomplices fraudulently took a bank overdraft of US$250 000 from Agribank Mutare, Anglican Diocese of Manicaland account without the knowledge of the Standing Committee and the church congregants.
“After the accused person and his accomplices fraudulently applied for a bank loan of a total value of US $700 000 misrepresenting that they wanted to construct St. Catherine’s Girls High school and to purchase a vehicle for the Bishop, they converted the loaned monies to their personal use and nothing was recovered,” read Mutyasira.
Ruwona will be back in court on the 24th of next month for routine remand.
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