Mahlangu Not Guilty
NKULUMANE MP Thamsanqa Mahlangu [MDC-T] was acquitted of stealing a mobile phone on Monday, concluding a dramatic trial.
Three other people charged along with the Deputy Youth Empowerment Minister, including an aide, were also acquitted.
Acquitted ... Thamsanqa Mahlangu
Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabhini said prosecutors had failed to prove the four had conspired to steal a US$80 Nokia 2310 belonging to war veterans’ association leader, Joseph Chinotimba.
The phone was reported missing at a government function attended by both Mahlangu and Chinotimba at a Harare hotel on July 17 this year.
The phone’s SIM card was later recovered from two Hwange women – friends of the MP – who implicated Mahlangu.
During the trial, it was revealed Mahlangu – who was staying with both women at a Harare hotel – removed the SIM card from the phone and threw it in a bin.
While the MP was not looking, one of the women retrieved it intending to use it under the belief that it was Mahlangu’s SIM card, and he had no use for it.
The magistrate said Chinotimba’s testimony given to the court differed from the record of his police interview and other witness accounts given in court. The prosecution team had fallen short of satisfying the “beyond reasonable doubt” threshold, he added.
Mahlangu said: “I’m glad that the magistrate has acquitted me because, as I have always said, I am innocent.
“I have no hard feelings for Chinotimba although he tried to soil my name and wasted a lot of my time which would have been better spent working to improve the lives of people.”
The magistrate said Mahlangu’s aide Marlvin Chadamoyo and his two female friends Patience Nyoni and Geraldin Phiri should also leave court without a stain on their characters.
Phiri and Nyoni, the magistrate said, used Chinotimba’s SIM card under the belief that it was Mahlangu’s.
Further, he said he was satisfied that having picked up Chinotimba’s phone from the conference venue, Mahlangu and his aide tried at various times to return it to him by seeking the help of both the Youth Empowerment Minister Saviour Kasukuwere and Deputy Prime Minister Arthur Mutambara.
Chinotimba — who is also a farmer — had filed a US$19 million lawsuit in the civil court, claiming for “lost income” as a result of the “theft” of his phone by Mahlangu. The MP’s acquittal puts that claim on ice.
Posted by Dave Fish Eagle
on November 2, 2009. Filed under Local News.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0.
Both comments and pings are currently closed.
Socialize
