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Senior Court Reporter

CCC members Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole, charged with obstructing the course of justice, yesterday lost their contest against the November 15 trial date after the court ordered them to return to court on September 6 for their routine remand.

Sikhala and Sithole, through their lawyers, had contested that they return to court for their routine remand, demanding that they wanted to be tried within the next 14 days.

They had also demanded that the State furnish them with court papers for them to prepare for their trial.

This was after the State led by Mr Lancelot Mutsokoti requested that they return to court within two weeks in the interim, while they wait for their trial on November 15.

Yesterday, Mr Mutsokoti told the court that Sikhala and Sitholes’ demands had been explained to them and were given a way forward by the prosecution after they appeared before another magistrate over the same issue.

Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje remanded the matter to September 6 for routine remand.

Sikhala and Sithole also lost their latest bail bid, based on what they argued were changed circumstances, after Harare regional magistrate Mrs Feresi Chakanyuka dismissed the application after noting that there were no changed circumstances from June 17 when they first made a bail application that was turned down.

Sikhala and Sithole, through their lawyers Mr Jeremiah Bamu and Ms Beatrice Mtetwa, had mounted a fresh bail bid based on the passage of time and the fact that Sikhala had not been posting videos.

ZimLive, an online news portal, had written a letter confirming that Sikhala had not posted a video on the platform.

The two had also told the court that there were other people arrested for causing the violence that occurred in Nyatsime following the killing of Moreblessing Ali, whom they claimed as their party supporter.

It turned out that Ali had not been killed by Zanu PF officials as claimed by CCC supporters, but was allegedly killed by her former boyfriend, Pius Jamba, who has since been arrested and appeared in court.

In their application, Sikhala and Sithole had also argued that some owners of the trucks that the State alleges were hired by Sithole, were also arrested in connection with the violence.