HARARE provincial magistrate Vakai Chikwekwe yesterday dismissed self-confessed prostitute, Melody Hamandawana’s application for discharge on charges of robbing a Gokwe magistrate, saying she had to explain how she ended up with the complainant’s property.
BY PAIDAMOYO MUZULU
Hamandawana is alleged to have ganged up with her friends and assaulted the magistrate before robbing him of his mobile phone tablet, car keys and a wallet containing $156 at a flat at the corner of Eighth Street and Central Avenue in the capital.
However, Hamandawana is denying the charges, arguing the Gokwe magistrate, Shepherd Mnjanja was her long-time client, who pressed the charges against her simply to avoid paying for sexual services rendered.
“It is not in dispute that a wallet and car keys were recovered from the accused. Accused, therefore, has to answer or explain how the complainant’s property ended up in your possession,” Chikwekwe ruled. Hamandawana in her defence reiterated Mnjanja was her long-time client and had left the property in her custody as surety that he would pay for the oral sex she had performed on him after making a withdrawal from the bank.
“My friend Chipo told me Mnjanja would run away without paying if he did not leave his property as security since he once did that to another sex worker Natasha in the past,” Hamandawana said. The response did not, however, satisfy prosecutor, Venancia Mutake, who queried why Mnjanja would make a police report that would embarrass him if reported in the Press if indeed he was trying to evade paying for sexual services rendered.
Mutake further queried if it was not true that homicide police detectives were called to the flat after she had become violent after the police had come searching for the complainant’s property. Hamandawana feebly insisted that the property had been voluntarily left in her possession by Mnjanja, who had promised to spend the day at her flat. The accused will continue with her defence today by calling a witness to corroborate her evidence.
Meanwhile, the trial of jailed cleric Robert Martin Gumbura and eight others accused of trying to break out of Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison early this year was deferred to December 1, after defence lawyer, Tapson Dzvetero told the court he had travelled to South Africa to attend to his ill son. Prosecutor Michael Reza consented to the postponement of the trial.
