Guard in court over assault

News
A SECURITY guard at Shoestring Backpackers was on Tuesday brought before the courts for allegedly resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

A SECURITY guard at Shoestring Backpackers was on Tuesday brought before the courts for allegedly resisting arrest and assaulting a police officer.

Ruth Ngwenya Own Correspondent

Matshayi Ncube (42), who was facing two counts of assault, pleaded not guilty to allegations of assaulting a Victoria Falls policeman, Tungamirai Mugadhi, when he appeared before magistrate, Sharon Rosemani.

Ncube said he had resisted arrest because he thought the officer was biased against him and had taken sides with another person with whom he had a misunderstanding.

“We just had a misunderstanding, I did not slap him,” he said in his defence.

“I resisted arrest because l thought he was siding with Learnmore Pindura, as he just wanted to arrest me without finding out what really happened between me and Pindura.”

Prosecutor Takunda Ndovorwi told court that on December 6 at around 4am, the accused slapped the complainant with open hands twice on the right cheek, after Mugadhi had introduced himself as a police officer who wanted to arrest him for assaulting Pindura.

“After hearing the charges he was facing, Ncube pushed and slapped me twice on my right cheek,” the police officer alleged.

“He then ordered me to vacate his place of residence immediately.”

The prosecutor added that earlier that day at around 1am, Ncube slapped Pindura several times on the face for no apparent reason.

However, Ncube said he was the victim, as Pindura had assaulted him first, after he was denied entry into the lodge.

“When l got to the sports bar, Pindura asked me if l owned Shoestrings since l had denied him entry there,” he said.

Ncube added that he tried avoiding Pindura, who is based in Harare, but he kept following him, threatening to show him the “Harare way”.

“Pindura kept on threatening me until he slapped me,” he continued.

“I got angry and slapped him back, leading to a fight between us.”

 However, Pindura said Ncube was lying, as he did not have a misunderstanding with him at the lodge, but instead it was his companion who had.

He told court that Ncube appeared from nowhere while he was standing at the veranda of Chinotimba sports bar trying to get a taxi to take him home.

“The accused suddenly came and slapped me four times on my face and l fell down,” Pindura said.

“When l got up, l realised that my wallet, which had $23, passport and my national identity card, had been stolen.”

Ncube was remanded out of custody for continuation of trial on 13 January.