The incarcerated Zengeza West legislator Job Sikhala has accused the state of fabricating evidence to keep him locked up in prison.
Sikhala was testifying in a matter in which he is being charged of obstructing the course of justice.
In his defense, Sikhala told magistrate Marehwanazvo Gofa that he was not aware that the state was investigating the murder of slain Citizens Coalition for Change activist Moreblessing Ali.
“I was not aware that the police were investigating the murder of Moreblessing Ali. Chief Superintendent Elliot Muchada who testified in this court even said that I was not aware that the police were investigating, I do not work at the police force so I cannot prophesy what they were investigating on.
“How would I have known that they were investigating that matter. This case has been based on the foundation of lies from its very beginning, there was ferocious allegations by the state that I recorded a video and posted on social media, all the three witnesses said they do not have any evidence that I have recorded or posted any video. These are the lies which the state has been basing this case, I’m under arrest for ten months now on false allegations and all state witness denied about it, ” Sikhala told the court.
He also denied ever recording or posting any video saying, “the video’s origin and authenticity is unknown, it is a subject of manufacture for their own agenda”
Sikhala also also said that the day in which the police are alleging that he addressed mourners, he was in his rural home in Gutu.
“On the 25th of May 2022 I was in my rural home in Gutu and it was a holiday and I travelled back to Harare on 26 May, it was only Muchada who said that, trying to be in conformity with the dates, that I was in Nyatsime on 26 May and by that time I had not known about the disappearance of Ali. No-one knew on the 25th of May that Ali had been murdered and how could I even address the mourners, by that time she was only known to have been kidnapped. There could not have been a funeral wake on May 25 because her body was found in June. so it’s a only a stake of lie the state has been peddling in this nation against me.
“I can invite villagers from Gutu that I was in my village on the said day. There are no more lies than what the state is saying in this outline. They lied in the form 242 that they will bring eyewitnesses who attended the funeral wake but later on they said they only relied on the video which they have extracted from the YouTube without authenticity of the video,” he said.
Sikhala also demanded that the creator of the video be brought to court to testify.
“The state has been lying against myself. The three state witnesses spoke directly opposite to the lies the state has been peddling to serve a particular purpose”.
Sikhala’s lawyers Harrison Nkomo and Jeremiah Bamu applied for the matter to be postponed to Wednesday 22 March 2023.
