It appears to me that an accused person who, during a criminal trial, takes the court into his confidence, and confesses to an act or omission constituting an essential element of a crime, may not genuinely appeal against the trial court’s finding that he committed such act or that he made such an omission unless the appeal takes the form of retracting the admission on any valid legal ground. The admission means that there will be no dispute on the issue between the State and the accused to be resolved by the court. See S v Kwainona 1993 (2), ZLR... More
In this matter the marriage between the plaintiff and first defendant was dissolved by a decree of this court on 26 November 2019 in an initial action where the parties were only the plaintiff, first and second defendant. The second defendant had been cited because of allegations of adultery between her and the first defendant. It appears that the issue of adultery damages was resolved out of court through a deed of settlement of 26 November 2019 with second defendant paying ZWL $20 000.00 and the second defendant ceased to be directly involved in the proceedings hence her nonappearance in... More
This is an appeal against the decision of the DA who handled the dispute of non payment of terminal benefits to the respondent employees. The background to the matter is that the employees were awarded an 11% wage increment which the employer unsuccessfully challenged all the way to the Supreme Court. Post the Supreme court judgement the employees again approached the DA 0alleging non payment of their terminal benefits. This did not go down well with the applicant. In its view such an approach was tantamount to asking the DA to enforce a Supreme Court order and to issue a... More
The accused person, a male adult aged 33 years old, was arraigned before this court facing a charge of murder as defined in s 47(1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] (the Criminal Law Code). It was alleged that he murdered one Moreblessing Ali between 24 May 2022 and 11 June 2022 at a place between Chibhanguza Nightclub, Nyatsime and Plot 321 Dunmoter farm in Beatrice. More
The accused was convicted on a charge of culpable homicide arising from a road traffic accident in contravention of s49 (a) of the Criminal Law Code. He was sentenced to pay a fine of $30 000 in default of payment 60 days imprisonment. In addition 6 months imprisonment was conditionally suspended for 5 years. In addition the accused was prohibited from driving all classes of vehicles for 2 years. The accused drove a Freightliner truck towing a trailer loaded with 30 tonnes of polythene bags of maize. Four passengers were on board sitting on the polythene bags. The deceased was... More
The two accused persons who are brothers 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). More
1. The accused aged 22 years old was properly convicted of the charge of robbery as defined in s 126(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] by the learned magistrate sitting at Bindura Magistrates Court on 21 October 2022. The accused was sentenced as follows: More
