Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe, two convicted fraudsters with ties to the Zanu PF, attempted to appeal their hefty jail sentences for masterminding a multi-million dollar scheme, but the High Court rejected their case.
The fraud siphoned public funds from a national poverty alleviation programme.
Mpofu and Chimombe, who were found guilty in December 2025 of defrauding the government of approximately US$7.3 million under the Presidential Goat Pass-On Scheme, were denied permission to appeal by Justice Pisirayi Kwenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Justice Kwenda found their intended appeals \u201clacked substance,\u201d describing some of their legal arguments as \u201cfrivolous,\u201d \u201cvexatious,\u201d and reflective of \u201cdishonourable conduct.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two were found to have acted as co-perpetrators in a scheme that submitted a bid under a fictitious company, Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming, to supply over 632 000 goats. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
They allegedly propped up the bid with forged tax and social security certificates and hijacked the identity of a legitimate but non-compliant company, Blackdeck (Pvt) Ltd. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After receiving ZWL$1,6 billion (about US$7,7 million at the time) from the Ministry of Lands, Agriculture, Water, Fisheries and Rural Development, they delivered only 4 208 goats, valued at roughly US$331 445. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of the money was quickly dispersed, including a transfer of ZWL$200 million to Millytake Enterprises, a company controlled by Chimombe, before being illegally traded on the foreign-currency black market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwenda detailed how the deception took root within government systems. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe Ministry officials dealt with Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming and accepted its bid as valid after being misled into believing that Blackdeck Livestock and Poultry Farming was lawfully the other name of Blackdeck (Pvt) Ltd,\u201d he ruled, adding that the false impression created \u201cso much confusion\u201d that officials drafted a contract with the non-existent entity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge was critical of Mpofu\u2019s grounds of appeal, remarking that a lawyer who insists a company exists while knowing the proper legal formalities were never completed does so \u201conly to cause annoyance to the court.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chimombe\u2019s claim that he was merely a lobbyist was also dismissed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The court cited a web of circumstantial evidence, including testimony from former Agriculture secretary John Basera, who said Chimombe \u201cassumed a leading role during the deliberations and appeared to be the ultimate decision <\/p>\n\n\n\n
maker.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kwenda indicated that \u201cthe totality of the circumstances\u2026cannot be explained by any other inference than that he was a co-perpetrator.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The judge upheld both men\u2019s sentences, noting that the offence contained multiple \u201caggravating circumstances\u201d under sentencing guidelines\u2014including the high value involved, the abuse of public funds, and the lack of recovery. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Mpofu received an effective 19-year sentence, with part suspended on condition of repaying more than US$2 million. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chimombe received an effective 14-year sentence, with a portion suspended on condition of repaying over US$964 000. Restitution must be paid by February 28, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Moses Mpofu and Mike Chimombe, two convicted fraudsters with ties to the Zanu PF, attempted to appeal their hefty jail sentences for masterminding a multi-million dollar scheme, but the High Court rejected their case.The fraud siphoned public funds from a national poverty alleviation programme.Mpofu and Chimombe, who were found guilty in December 2025 of defrauding […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":482,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-474","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/444.jpg?fit=1159%2C983&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/ph4lML-7E","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=474"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":479,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/474\/revisions\/479"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=474"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=474"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/07newsdaily.co.zw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=474"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}