MAWADZE J: This review judgment has been occasioned by the need to assist judicial officers especially Magistrates in sentencing juveniles convicted of criminal offences in light of the decision of the Constitutional Court in the case of State v Willard Chokuramba& 4 Ors. CCZ 10/19. More
: The delay in finalising this criminal trial has been occasioned by the none availability of one of the state witnesses the then Sgt Richmore Pepukai who had left the police force and was said to have relocated to Botswana. Although the trial commenced on 22 March 2018, Sgt Richmore Pepukai only availed himself on 6 June, 2019. Meanwhile pro deo counsel for the accused constantly changed in the process from Mangwana and Partners. When the trial started Ms V. Zvobgo represented the accused. After she relocated Ms P. Chimwanda took over who also left and the trial was completed... More
The trial of the accused commenced on 9 November, 2016 and the state case was only closed on 27 June 2019. The reason for this long delay has been the unavailability of a key state witness Dr.SanganaiPesenai. The state indicated that Dr SanganaiPesenai was unwell and could not travel to Masvingo from Bulawayo. He only availed himself on 27 June, 2019 after which the state case was closed. An application for the discharge of the accused was then made on the same day. Due to this prolonged delay we proceeded to give an extempore ruling on the application on the... More
This case is an epitome of a poorly investigated case. As a result the trial became tedious as it was characterised by irrelevant State witnesses. The incident in this case occurred in bar in which there were about 25 local people but the Investigating Officer could not record any statement from all these witnesses save from the barman who had not actually seen what happened. To make matters worse this Investigating Officer one Sgt. Ngonidzashe Nhukarume seemed clueless of what was expected of him in such a serious case and ended up conceding in court that he was giving misleading... More
The tragic events in this matter are rather saddening.
The 29 year old accused who hails from Matya Village, Chief Murinye, Masvingo tragically caused the death of his 69 year old father on 12th June, 2019.
Initially the accused was charged of murder as defined in s 47(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Cap 9:23]. However the state and the accused’s pro deo counsel found each other and agreed that the proper charge is contravening section 49 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Cap 9:23] which relates to culpable homicide. The matter therefore proceeded on... More
