Former Zimbabwe Football Association chief executive officer Henrietta Rushwaya is likely to spend the Christmas and New Year holidays behind bars after Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna granted state application to provide her trial date on 8 January 2021.
The state successfully convinced the court that they will be ready to provide Rushwaya and her co-accused with a trial date on 8 January arguing that investigating officers needed more time.
However, Rushwaya’s lawyer, Dumisani Mtombeni has put the state on notice to challenge her placement on remand but magistrate Nduna said he will “not confirm the undertakings to be removed from remand.”
Rushwaya still has a chance to be out soon should her bail appeal at the High Court succeeds.
Rushwaya (53), was arrested by Criminal Investigation Department (CID) detectives after she was found in possession of 6 kilograms of gold which she was trying to smuggle to Dubai.
The gold was detected by Civil Aviation Authority of Zimbabwe scanners and Rushwaya, who is the president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation, failed to produce documents authorizing her to export the precious mineral, leading to her arrest.
Rushwaya is alleged to have told detectives at the airport that the yellow metal belonged to a person she only identified as Ali, who resides in Alexandra Park in Harare.
She said Ali was a licensed gold buyer and had instructed her to hand over the gold to an unidentified person at Dubai Airport.
The former ZIFA boss is being charged together with Ali Mohamed, Stephen Tserayi, Raphios Mufandauya and Gift Karanda.
On other counts of bribery and abuse of office, Rushwaya was also remanded to 8 January. However, her bail hearing, including others will be on 24 December at the High Court.
