Mrs Mushure made the ruling after Mamombe and Chimbiri on
Tuesday mounted a bid to block a crucial State witness from Econet Zimbabwe, Mr
Godfrey Mangezi, from giving evidence saying they were not furnished with his
warned and cautioned statement before the trial started.
The State led by Mr Michael Reza had called Mr Mangezi to
give evidence on call history and data usage on numbers believed to belong to
the two CCC members.
After Mrs Mushure’s ruling, Mr Reza then applied for
postponement of the matter to May 23 to allow him to furnish the duo’s lawyers
with the statement.
Mr Reza also said that he also wanted to furnish the two
with another witness’ statement which he had not served them with.
Mamombe and Chimbiri, through lawyers Mr Alec Muchadehama
and Mr Jeremiah Bamu, had sought to bar Mr Mangezi from giving evidence.
The lawyers said: “When the matter was about to be set down
we were favoured with papers amongst them were witness statements. We were not
given a statement from the witness the State intends to call.
“As a result we did not know he will be called as a
witness. We were given a letter that the witness wrote after being asked
certain questions by police. There is no proper statement recorded from this
witness, which put us in an awkward position”.
Responding to Mr Muchadehama’s application, Mr Reza told
the court that Mamombe and Chimbiri were aware that Mr Mangezi will give
evidence from as far back as July 28, 2020.
“On exhibit A1 entry No.7 is a document that was submitted
to defence and signed by Mr Bamu on July 28, 2020.
“It says Econet wireless response. It is the document that
was prepared by the witness Mr Mangezi and it states the number of warrant of
search and seizure.
“That warrant of search and seizure asked Mr Mangezi to
provide subscriber details for 0773 519914, 07790140370, 0777570826.
“The information which was required was for Econet to
provide subscriber details, registered owners as per EcoCash, and call history
from May 1 to May 20, 2020.
“The defence was fully aware that Mr Mangezi was coming to
testify on registered owners and data usage in respect of those numbers. He
will also testify on call history of those numbers and those are the three
areas of interest to the State,” he said.
Mr Reza told the court that Mr Mangezi would not give
evidence that is not contained in the letter he prepared. He also told the
court that the State had furnished the CCC members with a print-out of the date
and call registers.
“He is not going to testify on anything other than that.
Defence was fully aware of the letter. It is not, therefore, correct that they
were not fully aware of what that man wanted to talk about. We supplied them
with registered owners’ documents, data usages form print-out, and call history
in respect of the two numbers,” Mr Reza said. Herald
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