The trial of Kwekwe Central legislator Masango Matambanadzo (Zanu PF) and his bodyguard Beden Mawire for allegedly assaulting Gokwe Kana MP Owen Ncube opened yesterday.
BLESSED MHLANGA STAFF REPORTER Ncube also of Zanu PF told magistrate Letwin Rwodzi that Matambanadzo punched him once on his right eye.
He said Matambanadzo’s bodyguard followed suit hitting him on the same spot with another ferocious punch.
“He (Matambanadzo) punched me on the face and as he did that his bodyguard also punched me with a heavy blow,” Ncube said.
“As soon as I realised that these guys were up to no good, I drove off at high speed and went to report the matter at the police.”
However, Matambanadzo’s lawyer Liberty Mashanyare accused Ncube of fabricating evidence against his client.
He said the two legislators were not on talking terms and Ncube wanted to bring his client down politically.
But Ncube said he had nothing against the MP.
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“Matambanadzo is an ordinary card carrying member who is not even in my league therefore I have no reason to want to attack his person or political life,” he said.
“I even helped him fill papers at Parliament because he could not do it, so why would I hate him?”
Matambanadzo, who has publicly confessed that he dropped out of school when he was doing Grade 2, is also reported to have difficulties reading and writing.
Mashanyare told the court that if indeed Ncube had been assaulted by Matambanadzo and Mawire, both trained boxers, he would be missing an eye.
“If any of the two who have big hands and are trained fighters had indeed assaulted you, you would be missing an eye right now,” he said. “ I therefore put it to you that they did not touch you.”
But Ncube told the court that he was a very strong man who did weightlifting and could not succumb to Matambanadzo and Mawire’s fists.
“They also assaulted a strong man who lifts weights and that man who is standing here did not retaliate because he knows the law not because he was afraid,” Ncube said.
Evidence Banda testifying against Matambanadzo, said he witnessed the attack on Ncube firsthand and it shocked him.
“I had never seen anything like that, I was shocked,” he said. “I then tried walking towards Ncube, but before I could get to him he had left in his car.”
Fiona Mkwena prosecuted.
The trial will continue September 26.
