Former Minister of Labour and Social Welfare, Petronella Kagonye, has been convicted of theft of trust property.

Kagonye was convicted after a full trial by Harare regional magistrate Vongai Guwuriro.

Magistrate Guwuriro ruled that Kagonye failed to deal with the laptops that had been donated to her by Potraz as instructed.

And such conduct amounts to theft of trust property as she failed to account for the laptops upon demand, ruled the magistrate

Allegations are that in February 2014, Kagonye approached the cooperative and informed the members that she owned a piece of land at Solomio Farm yet it belonged to ZB bank. She went on to tell the cooperative members that she had offered them the land for residential stands.

Kagonye reportedly then informed members to pay US$10 per square metre and the value of a stand would be determined by size.

During the same period, Kagonye received US$20 000 from Porte Rodgers the chairperson of the cooperative.

The cooperative suffered total prejudice of US$38 500. It is further alleged that between June 2018 and July last year, Kagonye wrote to then Information and Technology Minister Supa Mandiwanzira requesting computers to donate to schools in Goromonzi South.

On June 20, 2018 Mandiwanzira then wrote to Potraz requesting facilitation of the donations through its elearning project to Goromonzi South schools.

Potraz donated the computers to Kagonye which were collected by her brother Evans Kagonye on her behalf and he signed the collection form.

Potraz made a follow up on the donation to Kagonye’s brother and constituency officer, but up to date the computers cannot be accounted for.