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Nyore Madzianike Senior Court Reporter

ZIMBABWE Miners Federation (ZMF) president Henrietta Rushwaya testified in her own defence on her charge of attempting to bribe an airport security officer in October 2020 to allow her to leave the country with 6kg of gold.

After Harare regional magistrate Mrs Learnmore Mapiye rejected her application for discharge made at the end of the State case, ruling that the State had made out a case that Rushwaya had to answer, she was called to give her story by her defence lawyer Mr Peter Patisani.

Mrs Mapiye, in her ruling, said Rushweya was supposed to explain as to what she did soon after the airport officials discovered that she was in possession of gold and that she had no requisite papers that allowed her to export gold.

Rushwaya denied ever offering a bribe and suggested her prosecution was as a result of malicious people who wanted to soil her name as president of small-scale gold miners, accusing the two witnesses from airport security of making up the story to do this for someone else.

She claimed that she never offered a bribe to anyone and had no intentions to smuggle gold out of the country, saying it was a case of her carrying a wrong bag to Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport, which ended with her arrest.

She told the court that she was a gold buying agent for Fidelity Printers and Refiners and that she held a gold buying license.

“I did not possess US$5 000 and I did not offer Owen Sibanda anything since I was not in possession of anything,” she said. “I did not offer Owen Sibanda anything and I had no reason to offer him anything considering that Owen Sibanda’s duty is of scanning bags and to see free passage of travellers.

“There was no need to offer him money over a duty that does not entail him to receive money.”

Rushwaya told the court that if she had intentions to smuggle gold, she would have not volunteered to go through the security scanning point after being ushered by the airport officials to use the VIP section.

She said she advised airport officials, including Owen Sibanda whom she allegedly offered the bribe, that she had picked a wrong bag from home.

“It was only when my bag was put on the scanning machine that I realised that I had gold,” said Rushwaya. “I advised Owen Sibanda and the other members around me, that is airport officials, that I had taken the wrong bag.

“I asked them if they could accompany me to my house to pick the correct bag, but unfortunately, I got arrested. If I had intentions to smuggle, I would not have put the bag on the scanner. Being a president of an organisation that produces the largest amount of gold in Zimbabwe, I would not have carried gold without requisite papers or export without requisite papers.”

Rushwaya said upon her arrest, she cooperated with law enforcement agents at all material times.

She told the court that the police went to take the other bag, which she claims is similar to the one she was found with at the airport, during the time she was in remand prison. Rushwaya said the police were still in custody of the two similar bags since 2020.

She also told the court that the two witnesses that testified against her, Mr Sibanda and Ms Dzikamai Paradza, falsified information to appease “a third force” that might be working to soil her good name.

Mr Patisani indicated that he will file additional submissions on Thursday, with the State led by Miss Sheilla Mupindu expected to respond on August 10 before the court makes a judgment the following day.