Zimpapers Logo

Tungamirai Madzokere

Fidelis Munyoro Chief Court Reporter
Three MDC-T activists who killed Police Inspector Petros Mutedza in Glen View, Harare, five years ago, were yesterday convicted of murder.

Insp Mutedza was brutally stoned to death at Glen View 3 Shopping Centre by MDC-T activists in May 2011.

He was part of an anti-riot police unit that had been deployed in the area to disperse MDC-T supporters who were holding an unsanctioned rally.

Read more:

• Cop killed in MDC-T violence | The Herald
• Cop’s murder suspects picked
• No bail for 12 cop murder suspects
• Six more cop murder suspects arrested
• Police murder suspects apply for bail
• 20 suspected MDC-T cop killers remain in custody
• Cop murder suspects granted bail
• Cop murder case: Bail appeal struck off roll
• High Court reserves ruling on cop killer suspects
• Cop murder case: Judge blasts MDC-T lawyers
• Murder witness accuses police
• 21 Glen View cop killer suspects freed on bail
• Media barred in MDC-T activists trial
• MDC-T cop murder suspects acquitted
• Court reserves ruling on three MDC-T activists
• MDC-T murder suspects bailed

Justice Chinembiri Bhunu — sitting with assessors Messrs Patrick Musengezi and Alexander Mhandu — found Tungamirai Madzokere, who was then councillor for Glen View Ward 32, Yvonne Musarurwa, the party’s youth deputy secretary and Last Maengahama guilty of murder with actual intent.

They were remanded in custody to tomorrow for sentencing.

The fourth accused, Phineas Nhakatirwa, was found guilty of being “an accessory after the fact of public violence”.

The other three — Lazarus Maengahama, Edwin Muingiri and Paul Rukanda — were acquitted.

Yvonne Musarurwa

In a statement, MDC-T said it was saddened by the conviction .

“The party is convinced that justice will take its course and that these three cadres will be cleared of any criminal offence when the matter is taken up on appeal,” said the opposition party spokesman Mr Obert Gutu.

Madzokere, Musarurwa and Maengahama were convicted on the basis of the doctrine of common purpose.

This is a legal doctrine that imputes criminal liability to the participants in a crime for all that results from that act.

“Both accused’s presence at the scene of crime and close association with the marauding group of youths that eventually resisted and attacked the police lead inexorably to the conclusion that the State has established beyond reasonable doubt that both accused colluded and acted in common purpose in killing the deceased,” said Justice Bhunu, who is now a Supreme Court judge.

“They are accordingly found guilty as charged of murder with actual intent and not guilty of the alternative charge of public violence as it forms part of the main charge.”

Last Maengahama

On Last Maengahama, the court unanimously found that the State proved its case beyond reasonable doubt.

“We found as a matter of fact that the accused …has been correctly identified as a person who threw a stool at Constable Mushaninga inside Munyarari bar,” said the judge.

“By participating in the attack, he made it his common purpose with the MDC-T group to resist police orders to resist to disperse by perpetrating an unlawful attack on the police, causing the deceased’s death.”

“The attack was made with the actual intention to kill. That intention is equally ascribed to the accused,” he said, announcing the verdict of “murder with actual intent.”

For Nhakatirwa, the court found that his conduct of giving the activists a lift to escape from the scene made him criminally liable for a lesser charge of being an “accessory after the fact of public violence”.

The other three – Lazarus, Muingiri and Rukanda – the court found that the evidence against them failed to add up. To this end, they were given the benefit of a reasonable doubt and were cleared of the charges.

During trial, the court heard that activists fatally assaulted Insp Mutedza who was on duty together with other police details as they attempted to stop the unsanctioned gathering.

Ms Beatrice Mtetwa assisted by Charles Kwaramba and Gift Mtisi, acted for the activists while Mr Edmore Nyazamba appeared for the State.