Bindura Magistrate, Vongai Muchuchuti yesterday postponed to the 3rd of July, the trial of four ruling party supporters accused of looting tonnes of flour and mealie meal belonging to Grain Millers Association of Zimbabwe (GMAZ) Chairperson, Mr Tafadzwa Musarara in the run up to the Zanu PF Mazowe West primary elections.
Lawyer representing the four, Zvidzai Kajokoto said the state made an application to have the all the four accused on one record hence his request to have more time to prepare his defence.
Kajokoto said he only got the state papers yesterday, depriving him of adequate time to prepare.
“As you have realized in the court, there are four accused persons who appeared today for a trial, unfortunately they were appearing in separate records.
“The first and the second accused are on their own record and same as the third and fourth so the state made an application to marry the records to become one and they then amended the state papers accordingly so that it becomes one record with four accused persons.
“l am representing accused number three and number four so l sorted an application so that l consider the papers as they are now combined so that l find time to prepare.
“So that’s the application l made to the court for the postponement to allow us to prepare because we were given the state papers today,” said Kajokoto.
According to a report filed by the complainant, Bachelor Mondi Mpalane at Concession Police Station, the consignment (16 tonnes of Red Seal flour and 10 tonnes of Chibataura mealie meal) allegedly looted by the four, Boyd Fungulani, Shingirai Chisango, Lens Farando and Jonah Ngwenya was destined for donation to Mazowe West Constituency where Musarara was contesting in the ZANU PF primary elections.
