A former minister who served under Zimbabwe’s ex-president Robert Mugabe, Samuel Undenge, was found guilty of corruption and sentenced to four years in jail on Friday, his lawyer said, the first conviction of a Mugabe-era official since he stepped down.
Mugabe resigned in November after 37 years in power following a military coup. His former deputy Emmerson Mnangagwa took power, vowing to root out corruption in a bid to attract investors to an economy crippled by a decade of hyperinflation and a sharp shortage of foreign currency.
Undenge, an energy minister in Mugabe’s cabinet, was accused of issuing a $12,650 contract without due tender to a company that did no work.
His lawyer Alex Muchadehama told Reuters that he would appeal the court’s decision, saying the sentence was “shocking”.
He will however only serve two and half years of the four-year sentence after the court said 18 months would be conditionally suspended.
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