BULAWAYO High Court judge, Justice Nicholas Mathonsi has granted an Inter-Africa bus driver leave to appeal both his conviction and 12-month jail term for culpable homicide.
BY SILAS NKALA
The bus driver, Ronald Hamuzofe Makawa, was in January this year convicted and jailed for causing a fatal accident that claimed five lives along the Bulawayo-Beitbridge Road in October last year.
In his appeal, Makawa argued that the Esigodini magistrate, who presided over his case misdirected himself by convicting him of gross negligence without carrying out an inquiry to establish the degree of negligence.
He added that in making the ruling, the court did not consider that the slippery road also contributed to the accident. Makawa said the sentence was harsh and induced a sense of shock in him.
In granting his appeal, Justice Mathonsi last week said: “The appellant shall pay a fine of $400 or in default of payment spend four months imprisonment. In addition six months imprisonment wholly suspended for five years on condition he is not during that period convicted of negligent driving for which he is sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine.
“The matter is, hereby, remitted to the same magistrate, who shall recall the appellant for the purpose of conducting an inquiry into the existence of special circumstances as to why mandatory penalty of prohibition from driving and the cancellation of his driver’s licence should not be imposed.”
