State prosecutor in Fadzai Mahere and six others’ case, Michael Reza, had a torrid time in court after the defence team pointed out that the charge in the accused persons’ papers is fake.
The quarrel came after Reza mentioned section 4 (1) (a) of the Statutory Instrument (SI) 77/2020, which the defence team said only has section 4 (1) and 4(2) but the (a) does not exist.
Reza said it was a typing error and the correct one is SI 83/2020 which prohibits public gatherings in relation to COVID-19 regulations. However, David Drury argued that the SI mentioned, 83/2020 had been repealed and replaced by SI 200.
“The state’s typing error is incompetent and invalid, it waited for 69 days. The state has no right to amend the charge with a complete new statute which was further repealed by SI200 of 2020 and the arguments need to be dismissed.
“The state is horribly wrong,” he said.
The legal team, Drury, Doug Coltart, Chris Mhike and Aleck Muchadehama have put the state in a corner today, demanding answers as to why the other charge planted in state papers does not exist.
The MDC-A spokesperson Mahere is appearing together with Jessica Drury, Simon Drury, Tinashe Murapata, Nyasha Musandi, Jaser Lotter, Tinotendwa Muswe appeared for their routine remand on allegations of inciting public violence after they were found wielding placards at Groombridge shopping centre in Mt Pleasant, Harare.
They were arrested wielding placards aimed at inciting an illegal demonstration and public violence on July 31and are currently out of custody on $5 000 bail each.
The defence team also made applications concerning the availability of a trial date for the case to be done away with and the relaxing of their bail conditions.
Reza responded that the police will investigate to their best knowledge and avail the docket to the National Prosecution Authority (NPA) who vet it before it is brought to court
The NPA has told the police to make further investigations on points they want to be clarified before the docket is ready for court, hence police are still investigating.
He said that State is not in any way delaying provision of a trial date. These instructions from the NPA ought to be followed so that the docket can be completed and ready for trial without any further delay.
As soon as the prosecution is satisfied that all of the essential elements of their crime are in place, the court will avail State papers to the Defence so that they can make their responses timeously before the trial date
