WARRIORS midfielder Kudakwashe Mahachi’s lawyer has applied for him to be discharged on the charges of attempting to kill his four-year-old son arguing that the three “key” witnesses who testified in the trial gave contradicting statements.
The footballer’s lawyer Nkosiyabo Sibanda of Tanaka Law
Chambers indicated that the testimonies given by the three witnesses, Meline Mahachi,
Sinikiwe Sibanda who are Kudakwashe’s sisters and his friend Carlos Moyo, were
“very weak”.
“On the above submissions, l would like the court to look
at these three witnesses’ descriptions of the child’s condition. It is proper
to look at these witnesses as suspects as they know a good deal about the
offence.
“The child is said to have come with injuries, but the
three harboured the child for a week, and the child’s health deteriorated in
their hands,” read part of the submissions.
Nkosiyabo argued that the trio did not disclose that there
was a doctor who was attending to the child when they reported the matter to
the police.
“When they were reporting the case to the police, they did
not disclose that they engaged a doctor (name supplied) who attended to the
child. They hid this (information) from the police and the hospital
authorities.
“On the other hand, they said the child came with injuries,
and if this doctor was not bogus, he would have admitted the child. These three
had something to hide,” argued Nkosiyabo.
He further argued that the three witnesses gave different
testimonies concerning their associations with the doctor.
“One witness, Sinikiwe said they were all active in dealing
with the doctor who was said to have been attending to the child at home, while
Carlos denied ever witnessing the doctor injecting something into the child.
“In Sinikiwe’s testimony, she stated that Carlos was
holding the child while he was being injected by the doctor but Carlos
distanced himself from the dealings with the doctor,” further argues Nkosiyabo.
He further stated that in Sinikiwe’s testimony, Carlos was
the one who was paying the doctor, while Meline considered that there was a
doctor but she quickly disassociated herself from seeing the doctor.
If regional magistrate Mark Dzira who is presiding over the
case agrees, that will end the trial. If he disagrees Kudakwashe will be put on
his defence to see if the State case was sound enough for conviction and the
trial will continue until Dzira delivers his verdict.
The matter was remanded to 23 September 2022 when the State
led by prosecutor Acumen Khuphe is expected to respond to the application.
On Tuesday a doctor from Mpilo Central Hospital, Tichaona
Tokwe who attended to the child gave his testimony.
He said when the decision of amputation was reached, they
noted that the right foot had deep ulcerations and an exposed bone.
“This was a form of traumatic amputation, meaning that the
injured part of his foot was no longer connected to the main foot. We then took
the patient to the theatre to formalise amputation,” said Dr Tokwe.
He said the injuries of the patient were at different
stages and they observed that he had sustained deep ulcerations.
“We examined the patient as a team from Mpilo Central Hospital
and noted that the patient had deep ulceration on his head, left groin, left
leg and the top of his right foot.
“The wounds were at different stages of healing, some were
fresh, others were healing, and some had healed,” testified Dr Tokwe.
He further said that they went through different procedures
to determine the causes of the injuries like looking for the patient’s medical
history.
“When we were checking for the causes of different
injuries, we checked the history of the patient, and in this case, we talked to
the patient.
“The patient told us that he was hit with objects and hot
water was poured on his head. When we examined the patient, the description of
what transpired suited the injuries,” said Dr Tokwe.
Allegations against Kudakwashe are that on a date unknown
to the prosecutor but between 25 February 2022 and 14 April 2022, he assaulted
his son with an iron bar on the head and mouth.
It is further alleged that he poured hot water all over his
body and assaulted him with a charger cable all over the body.
As a result of the assault the child sustained serious
burns and injuries all over the body.
After a series of those alleged assaults Kudakwashe did not take his son to the hospital for medical attention but instead “smuggled” him back to Zimbabwe by a cross border transporter popularly known as Malayitsha. B Metro
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