LAWYERS representing former Harare mayor Muchadeyi Masunda have made an application for the dismissal of an assault case charge on the grounds that the State had failed to prove a prima facie case against the business executive.
Masunda’s lawyers want the case dismissed and the matter is set down for hearing on October 4.
The complainant is Ropafadzo Sibusiso Chidawu (34), the daughter of the late Harare Metropolitan Affairs and Devolution minister Oliver Chidawu.
The State alleges that on August 4, 2023, Chidawu went to Masunda’s workplace in Milton Park, Harare, to discuss some issues concerning the Oliver Mandishona Chidawu Trust and upon entering the office Masunda, expressed unwillingness to entertain her.
The complainant alleged that the accused wrestled her and she elbowed him. In her evidence, Chidawu said on realising that she was being attacked, she decided to get her cellphone so that she could record.
She claimed that she bent over and the accused grabbed her again, adding that she freed herself by using her left elbow to hit the accused.
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In the second assault, the complainant, Chidawu, alleged that the accused charged, ran towards her and grabbed her by the waist.
She said she removed the keys from the door to the accused office, locked herself inside accused’s office and put the keys in her dress, sat down and recorded the “meeting”.
After about two and half hours, she gave the accused back his office keys and left his office.
It is the State’s case that Chidawu went to her subordinate Truword Kapamara’s office and narrated the incident to him.
In applying for discharge at the close of the State’s case, Masunda’s lawyers Gwaunza & Mapota said the complainant had testified that she had sent a text message thanking the accused for the “meeting”.
“It is submitted that this behaviour is highly inconsistent with someone who had been indecently assaulted and was traumatised by the experience. One cannot thank their assailant after having been indecently assaulted,” the lawyers wrote in the application.
They wrote that the complainant had stated that she had reported the matter to the police on August 23, 2023, but when it was put to her under cross-examination that she made the report on November 23, 2023, she prevaricated saying she could no longer remember the dates, the lawyers wrote.
“However, she did not deny that the police report was made in November 2023. This is inconsistent with her handwritten statement to the police, which is dated 23 November 2023.
The lawyers argued that the State had failed to establish a prima facie case against the accused.
They said, Chidawu had lost four of the six cases she had reported against Masunda.
“The State has failed to adduce reliable evidence favourable to it from its own witnesses that if such evidence is uncontroverted by the defence the State will not be able to secure a conviction against the accused,” the lawyers wrote in the application.
“The State has failed to prove each element of the offence that the accused is charged with nor has it been able to adduce evidence of any other criminal offence that the accused could be found guilty of. The accused ought to be found not guilty and acquitted.”