BY Richard Muponde
JAILED Chipinge white farmer, who shot and injured his employee claiming he had mistaken him for a stray dog and blaming the victim for the incident, has applied for bail pending appeal.
Joubert Francois Johannes (36) of Lushof Farm was jailed for 18 months by Chipinge magistrate, Joshua Nembaware, after being convicted of negligently causing serious bodily harm to his employee, Frank Makuyana.
The farmer was sentenced to 24 months in prison, of which six were conditionally suspended on good behaviour.
However, on Wednesday, Johannes through his lawyer, Langton Mhungu, applied for bail pending appeal, arguing that he had applied to the High Court against his incarceration and the matter was still pending.
He said there were prospects of success in his application as the prosecution had consented to it.
“I have an application at Masvingo High Court, which is likely to succeed on the merits, considering that the witnesses also attributed the shooting of the complainant to a mistake on the a part of the compliant by moving from point A to B, unbeknown to the accused. The State was not opposed to the application as they had filed a consent order,” Mhungu said.
The prosecutor tendered the consent order in court, but the magistrate discovered that it did not have the district public prosecutor’s stamp and refused to accept it, before instructing him to get it stamped.
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A court orderly was sent to have it stamped and it was eventually accepted by the court.
