: The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder as defined in s 47(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [ Chapter 9:23] (the Criminal Law code). The deceased was her husband of 2 years and they had one child together. More
At the close of the defence cases for accused persons both Mr Mutema for accused 1 and Mr O Mafa for accused 2 indicated that they had no closing submissions either orally or written to make. Indeed, their stance may be understandable. The case for both accused persons is not an easy one to say the least. It is only Mr Mbavarira for the state who filed written closing submissions. More
The accused person in this case was convicted by a provincial magistrate at Guruve of two counts of stock theft as defined in s 114(2) (a) of The Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23]. Having found that no special circumstances existed the provincial magistrate sentenced the accused to the minimum mandatory 9 years imprisonment on each count. The record of proceedings was placed before me for what is colloquially called automatic review in terms of s57 of the Magistrates Court Act [Chapter 7:10]. I dispensed with the norm of seeking the views of the concerned magistrate before reviewing... More
The accused and the deceased were husband and wife. They lived in Norton. The marriage had subsisted for 22 years at the time of the deceased’s demise. A marital dispute ensued with the accused alleging infidelity on the part of the deceased. As per cultural practice the deceased invited her uncle to mediate. An attempt to mediate seemed to yield some short lived reconciliation of about a day or two ending with the death of the deceased. On the 13th of July 2020 the uncle bade farewell. He was joined by the accused who wanted to proceed to Harare. They... More
The accused was on 9 October 2021 charged with and convicted of unlawfully possession of two plastic satchets of dagga which weighed a combined 95 grammes. It was alleged that on 8 October 2021, at a home in Nharira, Norton, the accused was arrested while in unlawful possession of the two satchets of dagga. More
It istragic and unfortunate that this brawl by both the accused and the now deceased who were joyfully drinking beer together for the better part of the day ended up in the loss of life.
The accused was initially arraigned for murder as defined in section 47(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23]but the matter proceeded on a statement of agreed facts at the commencement of the trial. This was so as that the state accepted accused’s plea to the permissible verdict of culpable homicide as defined in section 49 of the Criminal Law (Codification and... More
