A BULAWAYO taxi driver charged for allegedly calling a city vendor an HIV-positive prostitute bragged that even Police Commissioner-General Augustine Chihuri will not cause his prosecution as local courts were manned by Shona-speaking officials.
BY SILAS NKALA
Complainant, Maziwani Mathe, told the court the accused, Egypt Mangwiro, said even if she was Chihuri’s relative, she would not do anything to him as local courts would make verdicts favourable to him.
Mangwiro (49) denied the criminal insult charges when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Merilyn Mutshina yesterday. The State alleged that Mangwiro insulted Mathe (33) saying she was an HIV-positive prostitute who was disturbed by the consumption of anti-retroviral drugs that she took every day. Mangwiro had complained that Mathe’s husband, Mdududzi Nyatsanza, was wooing taxi customers to load them in other vehicles.
“He said even if I took the matter to the courts I would not win because there were no Ndebeles in charge of the courts,” Mathe said.
“He said even if I was Chihuri’s child, it would not help because there was now a Chimurenga between the Ndebele and the Shona. I was surprised because I do not even know the Chihuri he was talking about.”
She said Mangwiro indicated that she would never win the case because the Shona were in charge of the courts and there was no Ndebele in a position of authority.
But Mangwiro disputed her claims.
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“You said if you took me to any New Start Centre and I tested negative, you would pay me, and you called me an HIV-positive prostitute,” Mathe told him.
“I do not know where you got it from. You meant that you slept with me and gave me that HIV since my husband does not know about that.
“I have been to hospital and I have my cards here, there is nowhere written HIV-positive, or were you saying that to please your friends?”
Nyatsanza said on the day in question, he was returning from delivering a customer’s luggage when he found Mangwiro insulting his wife telling her she was an HIV- positive prostitute. He said he did not know where Mangwiro obtained information that his wife was HIV-positive since they went for tests every three months and they had never been found positive.
The magistrate remanded the matter to June 29 for continuation of trial.
