Another opposition MP up for murder
Posted: Friday, August 2, 2002From Bulawayo Bureau, www.herald.co.zw
ANOTHER MDC legislator has been indicted for trial to the High Court on charges of murdering two senior Zanu-PF officials.
The opposition MP for Lobengula-Magwegwe, Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, together with two other MDC activists were implicated in the murder of Bulawayo war veterans’ leader and national hero Cde Cain Nkala and Cde Limukani Luphahla of Lupane District.
Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice George Chiweshe, yesterday dropped the provisional order, which barred the Attorney General’s office from indicting for trial the three on two counts of murder.
In his judgment, handed down by Justice Maphios Cheda, Justice Chiweshe said the reasons for discharging the provisional order would follow later.
The ruling means that the State can now lock in remand prison the trio — Fletcher Dulini-Ncube, Sony Nicholas Masera and Army Zulu until their trial at the Harare High Court on 11 November.
The trio can now remain in remand prison until the trial date.
This comes in the wake of the pending trial of former MDC spokesman and MP for Kuwadzana Learnmore Jongwe for killing his wife with a kitchen knife last month.
Last week, Justice Lawrence Kamocha granted Dulini-Ncube, Masera and Zulu a provisional order stopping the State from indicting them for trial pending the determination of the matter by the High Court.
The judge further ordered that the Attorney General should show cause why the three should not be removed from remand.
The trio had argued that the evidence submitted by the State in its indictment papers did not implicate them at all in the commission of the offences preferred against them.
They further argued that there was no evidence in the papers that would justify that they be indicted for trial.
It was also their contention that the State had no right to continue placing them on remand and asked the court to order that they be removed from remand.
The AG’s office in reply argued that the trio’s application should be dismissed, as it had no basis in law.
It was their contention that the application was frivolous, vexatious and went against the provisions of the country’s Constitution and sections of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act as it sought to usurp the powers of the AG.
The trio’s lawyers, Mr Josphat Tshuma and Mr Nicholas Mathonsi, both of Webb, Low and Barry Legal Practitioners, indicated soon after the judgment that they would appeal to the Supreme Court against the High Court’s decision.
Mrs Mercy Moya-Matshaga of the Attorney General’s office appeared for the State.
The three are some of the suspects alleged to have been hired by MDC to murder senior Zanu-PF officials to avenge the alleged kidnapping and disappearance of Mr Patrick Nabanyama in the run-up to the 2000 parliamentary elections.
Mr Nabanyama was the election agent for Bulawayo South Member of Parliament, Mr David Coltart.
After their recruitment, the State alleges Masera, the party’s deputy national secretary for security, taught them the skills to kill people using strong strings or fishing twine.
Dulini-Ncube allegedly provided them with a motor vehicle, which was used in the murder of national hero, Cde Nkala and Cde Luphahla of Lupane district.
Cde Nkala’s body was found buried in a shallow grave at Norwood Farm near Solusi University outside Bulawayo.
Three other suspects, Augustine Khethani Sibanda, Remember Moyo and Sazini Mpofu have already been indicted for trial and are now in remand prison.
They had all been granted bail but the indictment meant that they had to be placed in prison.
A seventh suspect, Gilbert Moyo, is on a warrant of arrest after he skipped bail.
However, the State has since dropped charges against Direen Spooner, who was suspected to have taken part in the murder of Cdes Nkala and Luphahla.
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