KWEKWE — The lawyer representing jailed Zanu PF activist and Midlands Provincial Governor Jason Machaya’s son, Farai , and his three accomplices has hinted his clients would soon consider paying compensation to the Chokuda family for the loss of their son.
The quartet was on Monday slapped with an 18-year jail term each by High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi following their conviction for the murder of Moses Chokuda in 2009.
The deceased’s body has remained uncollected at Gokwe General Hospital mortuary for the past two years after his family demanded compensation before they could bury him.
Defence lawyer Ambrose Dururu told Justice Mathonsi in mitigation on Monday his clients Machaya, a Zanu PF Midlands provincial youth executive member, Abel Maphosa, Edmore and Bothwell Gana (both sons of a Zanu PF Gokwe District Coordinating Committee chairman Ignatius Gana) had been under strict bail conditions since 2009 not to speak to the deceased’s family and therefore could not discuss the compensation issue before the matter was brought to finality.
“The accused persons were under strict conditions not to speak to the deceased’s family before the matter was brought to conclusion. They could therefore not show their remorse to the family under those circumstances.
“However now that the matter has been concluded, they will be approaching the family to say sorry in the best way they can,” submitted Dururu.
The deceased’s father, Tavengwa Chokuda, said: “We will wait for them to come and sit down with the family so that we bury our son. The only way to appease an avenging spirit is by paying and before that is done nothing is going to happen. I will not bury my son.”
He added: “My son is still dead and nothing can bring him back. It is my family’s loss. He left behind a family of his own and what justice do they have?”
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In an earlier interview, Deputy Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs Obert Gutu told NewsDay there was no law which could force the Chokuda family to bury their son.
Gutu, a lawyer by profession, said giving the deceased a pauper’s burial was out of question because his relatives were known.
