Trial date set for ex-Harare mayor

The trial date for suspended Harare mayor Jacob Mafume, who is alleged to have illegally allocated state land has been set for 18 October. New Zimbabe reports that Mafume faces charges of criminally abusing his office. Legalbrief reports that Mafume this year spent weeks behind bars over the graft allegations in a case the opposition has denounced as politically motivated. The MDC lawmaker was arrested in November for allegedly distributing plots of land to friends and relatives while serving as a city councillor in 2010.