At the end of a criminal trial the court makes up its mind as to whether the State has proved its case against the accused beyond reasonable doubt and that is what is normally contained in a judgment (See G Feltoe’s Magistrates’ Handbook Revised Edition 2021 at p 345). This implies a reasoned judgment. In this case, however, we acquitted the accused persons when, after a protracted trial when the Prosecutor General threw in the towel and exercised his prerogative to stop the prosecution in terms s 8(2) of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act [Chapter 9.07]. We gave our... More
Christopher Ndlovu who I will in this judgment refer to as the convicted person appeared before a regional magistrate sitting at Mutare Magistrate’s Court, charged with the contravention of s 184 of the Criminal Law (Codification and reform Act [Cap9:23] (defeating the course of justice) and alternatively s180 of the Code (giving false information to the court). He was jointly charged with a co-accused whose fate is not under consideration in this review judgment. The convicted person pleaded not guilty, but was convicted after a trial. It is however not clear as to whether he was convicted on the main... More
The accused was charged with the offence of physical abuse as defined in section 4 (1) as read with section 3 (1) (a) of the Domestic Violence Act,(Chapter 5:16). The accused pleaded guilty to the charge that on 13 April, he unlawfully assaulted the complainant who was his wife with fists, hit her head against the wall and bit her on the ear. The agreed facts were that the accused and the complainant quarrelled and had a misunderstanding. The cause of the altercation was that the complainant accused the accused person of having a girlfriend. The accused did not take... More
The above matters were heard by different magistrates at Epworth Magistrates Court. A worrying pattern runs across all of them. The problems in all of them relate to the imposition of the sentence of community service. They include the key considerations which must be taken into account, the procedural prerequisites, the calculation of community service hours and the period within which the offender should perform it. The records were referred to this court on automatic review. As a result, I have decided to address the three matters in a composite review judgment. More
The record of proceedings in this case was placed before me on review in terms of s 57 (1) (a) of the Magistrates Court Act [Chapter 7:10]. The record shows that the accused appeared before the local resident magistrate at Mutawatawa, Uzumba Maramba Pfungwe on 27 April, 2018 facing two charges of assault.
On the first count, the accused was charged with assault as defined in s 89 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act [Chapter 9:23]. The charge alleged that the accused unlawfully assaulted the complainant at Chivore business centre, Uzumba, on 18 April, 2018 at... More
