THE High Court has quashed a three-year jail term imposed on long-distance bus driver Albert Magura, who had been locked up for running over a school pupil in Harare last June.
CHARLES LAITON SENIOR COURT REPORTER
Sitting as an Appeal Court, High Court judges Justices Felistus Chatukuta and Owen Tagu concurred that the sentence imposed on Magura by a Gweru provincial magistrate was harsh.
Instead, the court of appeal ordered Magura to pay a $400 fine or serve a three-month jail term in default of payment.
Magura was last December slapped with a three-and-a- half-year prison term for causing the death of Mercy Johannes Mukwasini.
The lower court had ruled that Magura had acted negligently and caused the fatal accident.
The High Court also overturned the cancellation of Magura’s driver’s licence and his prohibition from driving for life.
Circumstances of the matter were that on June 12 last year, Magura hit Mukwasini as he drove a long-distance conventional bus along Simon Mazorodze Road towards Harare Road.
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As a result, Mukwasini was seriously injured and later succumbed to the injuries.
Through his lawyer, Dumisani Kufaruwenga, Magura appealed against the magistrate at the High Court arguing his actions on the day in question were rather ordinarily negligent as opposed to being reckless.
