Two members of the Zimbabwe National Army, who are being charged with treason following a foiled bombing at Gushungo Dairy in Mazowe early this year, were yesterday further remanded to May 23 after defence lawyers applied for a longer remand citing State’s unpreparedness for trial.
BY NQOBILE NKIWANE
Borman Ngwenya and Solomon Makumbe’s lawyer made the application after the Prosecutor-General’s (PG) Office failed to furnish the corporals with a trial date. Ngwenya (30) and Makumbe (29) are alleged to have connived with an opposition activist and an ex-army officer to bomb the First Family’s Alpha and Omega Dairies.
The opposition activist and the ex-army officer were initially charged together with Zimbabwe People’s Front leader Owen Kuchata (34) and Silas Pfupa (37).
Pfupa and Makumbe are out of custody while Kuchata is already serving a nine-year jail term after being convicted on possession of weaponry for sabotage charges. Makumbe and Pfupa were released after the State opted to use them as witnesses against their alleged accomplices, but were re-arrested two days later prompting the arrest of PG Johannes Tomana on charges of obstructing the course of justice.
According to the State, sometime in August last year, the suspects held several meetings at a hotel in Harare and planned to subvert a constitutionally-elected government.
Pursuant to their plan, the quartet went to Mapinga in Mashonaland West and set up a camp from where their members would be trained and operate. On January 1 this year, they allegedly went to President Robert Mugabe’s rural home in Zvimba and carried out surveillances to identify suitable vulnerable points to carry out the sabotage.
The State alleges they later met on January 19 at Queens Hotel and resolved to use fertiliser bombs to accomplish their mission.
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On January 22 at around 4pm, police received a tip-off that the quartet was planning to bomb the Alpha and Omega Dairies processing plant and a tuckshop during the night. It is alleged that the four accused Mugabe of causing suffering to Zimbabweans because of his “dictatorial leadership”.
