Threat To Mugabe’s Life: Two Cops Arraigned

The two police officers who were on Monday taken to court for assaulting President Robert Mugabe’s motorcade outriders yesterday denied threatening the life of the 92-year-old leader in any way.

BY MARY TARUVINGA

Applying for bail through their lawyer only identified as Sithole, Munyaradzi Chivengwa and Lubelihle Nyathi argued that Mugabe was not the complainant in the case.

President Robert Mugabe 

“The State did not substantiate the threat that was posed to His Excellency (Mugabe). The complainant is here in his personal capacity, and not on behalf of the President. The two are still serving members and have been serving since 2005. If they were a threat, they could have been nabbed long ago,” the lawyer said.

Opposing bail, prosecutor Francisca Mukumbiri said the pair’s offence was of a serious nature.

She said the accused officers had no right to disturb the smooth flow of Mugabe’s motorcade.

Mukumbiri also said the two were likely to abscond if granted bail considering the nature of their charges.

The State further submitted that investigations were yet to be finalised.

Sithole, however, told court that both officers were Zimbabweans, adding chances were very high that they were not going to be convicted.

She said the fact that the two were arraigned before the court on a full docket pointed to that the State had completed its investigations.

Through their lawyer, the two also told court they never refused to stop after seeing the outrider.

“It is also the accused’s defence that they only saw the biker when they were already turning into Samora Machel Avenue, which explains the three metres written in the State outline,” Sithole said.

Nyathi and Chivengwa argued that they were the ones who were assaulted, not the other way round.

The court heard that on Saturday, Chimoto was leading a team of six outriders escorting Mugabe on his way to his rural home in Zvimba.

It was said Chimoto stopped at the intersection of Samora Machel Avenue and Tredgold Road in Belvedere around 9:30pm and began controlling traffic to pave way for the motorcade.

Chivengwa and Nyathi then arrived in their private car and allegedly refused to follow orders to stop.

Chimoto was said to have then blocked their way, resulting in the two officers allegedly attacking him and the fourth outrider who arrived at the scene shortly afterwards.

Magistrate Tendai Mahwe will make his ruling today.