By Mary Taruvinga

THE trial in which former National Social Security Authority (Nssa) general manager, Elizabeth Chitiga is accused of swindling the parastatal of $31 million in a housing project scam could not proceed Thursday after voice recorders broke down.

Chitiga had however pleaded not guilty to the charges when she appeared before Harare magistrate, Bianca Makwande.

“In count one, criminal abuse of office as outlined in section 174. The accused denies the allegation and State should prove each and every allegations brought against her,” said Jonathan Samkange who is representing Chitiga.

National Building Society (NBS) head of housing Silas Mukono was supposed to testify against Chitiga but he could not after a technical fault developed.

“Witness, as you can see we are having challenges with recorders, they are not working. You may come back to court on August 7,” Makwande said.

Chitiga allegedly awarded contracts for the construction of an $80 million National Building Society (NBS) housing project fraudulently to land developers without the knowledge of the responsible authorities.

The former pensions boss was arrested in December last year and is out of custody on Z$1 000 bail.

Chitiga is alleged to have potentially prejudiced Nssa of Z$ 31 727 500 in the botched land project scam.