THE TRIAL of the outgoing National Healing minister Moses Mzila-Ndlovu on charges of armed robbery and theft yesterday failed to start as the magistrate expected to preside over it was said to be in Harare on an official visit.
SILAS NKALA, STAFF REPORTER
This comes a few weeks after the previous regional court trial magistrate Mark Dzira recused himself from dealing with the case on grounds he had worked closely with the accused when the lawer office was based in Plumtree, some time ago.
Mzila-Ndlovu was supposed to appear in court before magistrate Trinos Wutanashe yesterday.
The case was postponed to September 12 for trial.
The MDC deputy secretary-general is facing charges of armed robbery and theft of property worth $427. He has not yet been asked to plead to the charges, but is out of custody. It is the State case that Mzila-Ndlovu threatened to shoot two firewood poachers, Vupenyu Gumbo and Lucky Dube, before robbing them of their cash, car keys, cellphone and personal identity documents.
The crime was allegedly committed at his Magazine Farm near Mbokodo along the Bulawayo-Plumtree Road on April 11 2013.
