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Chief Court Reporter

CCC deputy national chairperson Job Sikhala and his Chitungwiza North counterpart Godfrey Sithole are today expected to appear at the High Court appealing against a magistrate’s decision not to grant them bail pending trial on charges of incitement to commit violence. 

They are being accused of mobilising their party supporters to unleash violence in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza, during a memorial service for Moreblessing Ali.

The legislators were last week denied bail by Harare magistrate Mr Gibson Mandaza on the grounds that they were “a threat to public security” and were likely to re-offend if released.

 Ali, who the CCC said was their supporter, was abducted outside a nightclub in Nyatsime on May 14 and her dismembered remains were discovered in a disused well at a farm in Beatrice, about 10km away from where she was taken.

The prime suspect in her murder, Pius Jamba (31), has since been arrested and was remanded in custody.

Sikhala and Sithole were arrested on June 14 charged with conspiring to engage in acts of violence to avenge the killing. The magistrate also ruled that Sikhala was likely to reoffend since it was not his first time committing a similar offence.

Through their lawyer, Mr Alec Muchadehama, the legislators argue that the magistrate was wrong in making such findings. They accuse the lower court of mistaking the facts by making a conclusion not supported by any substantiated evidence.

“The magistrate erred in finding that Sikhala was a repeat offender who breached his bail in case 1445/20,” said Mr Muchadehama in his grounds of appeal.

“He also erred in denying Sithole bail on grounds that he was a man of means who allegedly supplied transport which ferried people to Nyatsime to commit violence and that the two were a danger to society.”