MARTIN MAWAYA
GWERU-Gweru Magistrate, Miriam Banda has acquitted three Citizens Coalition for Change (CCC) activists charged with public violence during the Mkoba Constituency 2022 by-elections.
Banda in her ruling said “evidence provided by the state witnesses was inconsistency and unreliable”.
John Kuka (38), Raphael Chipunza (51) and Simbarashe Kupfurutsa (31) were accused of storming the house of losing Zanu PF Mkoba Constituency candidate William Gondo during the March by-elections.
They were also accused of harassing Gondo’s wife inside her house during the raid.
The State alleged that on March 24 at around 4pm the complainant Violet Gondo was at her home in Mkoba 2 in Gweru when the accused persons who were aboard an unmarked Blue Ford Ranger vehicle in the company of a group of unknown people parked at the house.
The court heard that the trio were playing political songs campaigning for CCC Mkoba legislator Amos Chibaya when they stopped at Gondo’s house.
It is alleged that while at the house a group of CCC activists including the accused disembarked from the car and threw their party fliers into Gondo’s yard.
The accused persons are alleged to have been part of unknown people who pulled down Violet’s market table at the gate.
The court heard that an unknown person then produced a whip and assaulted one Gloria Madhlula on the legs.
When Madhlula phoned Gondo over the issue, the accused persons allegedly drove off at high speed.
The trio were represented by Bonwell Balamanja of Hlabano Law Chambers Legal Practitioners, while Helen Khosa prosecuted.
