Staff Reporter
Harare- businessman Francesco Marconati will spend two more weeks in remand prison after bail application in a case he is accused of fraud was postponed to February 16.
Marconati was appeared in court on last Saturday charged with fraud after he allegedly booted out shareholders of an Inyathi based gold mine and took over Duration Gold Limited (DGL) 5 Mine.
He is core accused with Andrew Hughes, an Australian who had already skipped the country into South Africa.
But his freedom bid hit a brick-wall after Harare Magistrate Jessie Kufa postponed bail hearing to February 16.
Appearing for the State, Lancelot Mutsokoti told the court that the matter had been postponed to 16 February 2026 and that the defence was free to apply for bail at any time.
Advocate Lewis Uriri, representing Marconati Uriri disclosed that he had reached an agreement with the State on postponement bail
hearing and asked for time to submit a bail application in writing.
“Your worship, can we submit the bail application in writing”
Magistrate Kufa granted the request.
Marconani was arrested on Friday after spending two days hiding in a mine shaft in Inyathi, orchestrating a movie-style escape through the weighbridge in a Honda Fit, bypassing the police waiting to arrest him at the main gate.
The police had been hunting him down for over 10 days on charges of fraud before they eventually arrested him today in Harare on charges of fraud.
Marconati handed himself in after running out of options because he was supposed to report to Inyathi police as part of his bail requirements on charges of illegal possession of guns.
He was arrested and DGL 5 alternate director Yan Bo for Ke Wang filed a report of fraud against him and Mark Andrew Hughes, of Australian origins who was illegally given shares by the Marondera-based businessman after an illegal takeover of the gold mine.
The offence came to light on December 30 when Bo visited the Registrar of Companies where he discovered that Marconati and Hughes had re-registered the mine, appointing themselves as the only directors of DGL mine.
“Such actions by Franscesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes amounts to fraud,” part of Ibo’s affidavit read.
“This is so because at the time of re-registration, Francesco Marconati and Mark Andrew Hughes had failed to to enforce the court order that they had obtained under HCBC 9/25. This means that the directors of Investment number 5 were Xing Ming Chang , Li Song and Ke Wang.”
Bo added: “Upon obtaining the court order under HCBC 9/25, the two tried to enforce it and failed as the Registrar of Companies or any other director or Sheriff for Zimbabwe was supposed to sign the new CR6 to enable the two to be reinstated as directors.
“After having failed to execute the said order under HCBC 9/25, it meant that the remaining directors on the CR6 were Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.”
According to Bo, Marconani and Hughes made a court application, HCBC 9/25 to amend the court order, but withdrew the application after it flopped.
This, according to Bo, means the order for HCBC 9/25 could not be enforced and thus directorship of the mine remained unchanged.
“The two also filed HCBC 659/25 being an urgent application for execution pending appeal but the application was dismissed,” Bo said.
“This therefore meant that the directors remained as Xing Ming Chang, Li Song and Ke Wang.”
The two, Bo added, changed the directors and “unlawfully removed legally appointed three directors” ignoring a pending court case dealing with the issue of shareholding of the company.
He said Marconati and Gughes had no lawful authority to elbow the directors of DGL 5.
Marconani is currently on bail on charges of illegal possession of guns, some of which were used to shoot down villagers passing by his mine. The shootings triggered his arrest in December where he spent the Chirstimas holiday behind bars.
When he appeared in court on Saturday, Marconati, with several cases against him involving abuse of guns, complained bitterly that he was hunted down by police armed with guns.
Due to his abuse of guns, villager from Inyati have also been trying to protest against the businessman over the shooting, but twice blocked by the police, whom they accused of protecting him.
They claim he had been committing a lot of atrocities to villagers and workers with impunity.
