ESIGODINI resident magistrate Tawanda Muchemwa has been
arrested for allegedly assaulting his maid using a belt before locking her in a
room.
The incident
allegedly occurred last year in May, but was only reported this year. Muchemwa, through his lawyer Mr Tanaka Muganyi
of Tanaka Law Chambers, denied the charges and applied for a discharge of the
case when he appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mrs Lucie-Anne Mungwari
at the Tredgold Magistrates’ court in Bulawayo yesterday facing physical abuse
and kidnapping charges.
He was remanded out
of custody to today for ruling on the application for discharge. Muchemwa (35)
of Hillcrest suburb in Bulawayo allegedly assaulted his maid, Ms Shaymore
Musendekwa (20), allegedly at the instigation of his wife.
His application for
discharge was based on what he termed “inconsistencies in the State witnesses’
testimonies.
“One wonders how
three people would come up with three different versions of the same incident.
It is strange that there can be three truths of the same incident, in fact that
is impossible,” said Muchemwa through Mr Muganyi.
Prosecuting, Mr
Thobelani Nyathi said on May 8 last year at around 4.20PM, Ms Musendekwa
intended to bathe Muchemwa’s children and when they refused to comply, she told
their mother, Mrs Petronella Muchemwa.
He said instead of rebuking her defiant children, Mrs
Muchemwa accused the maid of troubling her children before she reported the
complainant to her husband through a phone call.
Mr Nyathi said the
accused person arrived home shortly after 5PM and allegedly indiscriminately
assaulted the complainant with a belt several times all over the body.
Three days later, he said, the accused person ordered the
victim to lock the gate to the house before she handed over the keys to him.
“A few minutes later the accused person unlocked the gate
and went inside the house where the complainant was and ordered her not to
attend to anyone visiting the house. He also ordered the complainant not to
give anyone their residential address,” said Mr Nyathi.
He said Muchemwa locked the complainant inside the house
and left with the keys. The complainant phoned her aunt, Ms Primrose Gwese, who in
turn reported the matter to the police leading to Muchemwa’s arrest.
Ms Musendekwa sustained injuries and was taken to United
Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) for treatment.
Yesterday, she took
the witness stand and narrated how her employer allegedly tortured her for an
hour before locking her in one of the rooms.
Ms Musendekwa told the court that Muchemwa had been
physically abusing her and making her three-year stay at the house unbearable.
“My employer is a heartless person who subjected me to
torture for an hour. In fact, during my three-year tenure of employment at his
house, it was hell on earth. On that particular day, he assaulted me and locked
me in the house and I had to call my aunt to come and rescue me,” she said.
Ms Musendekwa’s aunt, Ms Gwese, said they tried to initiate
dialogue with the accused person and he was not forthcoming prompting them to
rope in the police.
Mr Silent Siwachi,
the investigating officer, also took to the witness stand and failed to answer
why he presented conflicting statements to the court.
He said he did not know how the charge was recorded as
kidnapping because at first when the report was made he recorded a physical
abuse charge only.
Mr Siwachi also changed
the name of the source that was written on the RRB and made it to be the
complainant who denied reporting in court.
“The informant
reported the matter first but l recorded the complainant as the source because
she was present at the station when l was filing the report,” he said. Chronicle
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