By Desmond Chingarande Citizens Coalition for Change vice president Tendai Biti who was filing his application for referral to the Constitutional Court in a matter he is accused of verbally assaulting a Zimbabwean investor Tatiana Aleshina has abandoned it and files for the recusal of the magistrate.
Biti’s application for recusal came after his application for postponement of the matter was dismissed by magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti-Guwuriro who insisted that the application for referral be proceed.
The opposition leader’s lawyer Alec Muchadehama had asked the court for postponement saying he did not have time to prepare for today’s assault hearing as he was occupied with another case of State and Joana Mamombe and Cecilia Chimbiri.
“We are not in the position to proceed with the referral application , the reason is l had no time to prepare for today proceedings.
Your worship you recall yesterday we adjourned on 3pm l went on to prepare for Mamombe trial , which lasted for the whole day under Chief Magistrate Faith Mushure. I had no opportunity to prepare , as l had no time to sit with the accused person to prepare for today proceedings,” Muchadehama said.
Muchadehama asked the court to postpone the matter to August 1.
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But the State prosecutor Michael Reza opposed the postponement saying magistrate Muchuchuti-Guwuriro has the power to order the matter to proceed or not.
“I’m therefore not surprised that the defense is not ready , it is a sign to show the court that you can say what you want but the matter should be remanded to 1 August , but we need to show respect to the court , if we stick to what the defense is saying the court business would be jeopardized,” Reza said.
However magistrate Muchuchuti-Guwuriro ruled against the postponement and ordered the Concourt referral matter to continue.
Aggrieved by the ruling Muchadehama abandoned the referral application and then filed an application for recusal saying the magistrate was bias.
Biti came to the witness stand saying he has been in court since the morning and needed sometime to prepare saying he had left all the documents at the office.
The matter was then rolled over to today.
The opposition leader is accused of verbally assaulting the complainant at the Harare magistrates court in 2020.
Reza had been on several occasions complaining to the court that the matter was taking long to complete saying it was due to unjustified postponement.