By Judith Nyuke
Prophetic Healing and Deliverance (PHD) Ministries leader Walter Magaya’s bodyguard who was accused of assaulting a police officer who was executing a warrant of arrest against the preacher at his Waterfalls prayer mountain last month has been acquitted by a Harare magistrate.
Tapiwa Felix Chikondo (34) represented by Malvern Mapako of Rubaya and Chatambudza Legal Practitioners was acquitted after a full trial.
He was charged with obstructing justice or alternatively assaulting or resisting a peace officer.
According to the State, the incident occurred at Magaya’s prayer mountain in Waterfalls, Harare.
The State led its two witnesses Munyaradzi Chifamba and Wellington Mashizha who are police officers.
In his ruling, Magistrate Tapiwa Kuhudzai said the prosecution failed to prove its case. He questioned why the State did not call two security guards who were at the scene as witnesses adding that the police appeared to be pushing a specific narrative.
“The court takes issue with the fact that only police officers testified in court. It was submitted that there were two guards who manned the boom gate who were detained when the police arrived and were placed in the commuter omnibus.
“The court was made to believe that they were not brought to testify because they did not see what transpired, since they were inside the commuter omnibus. Oddly enough, Chifamba was also in the same vehicle but gave an account of the conduct of the accused, which conduct he alleges to have seen whilst still in the vehicle.
“How then is it that the security guards who were also in the same vehicle could not see what was happening?
“The court can therefore only infer that the omission to record the statements of the two guards was deliberate from the police, intended to favour a certain narrative, to the prejudice of the accused. This, therefore, draws the court into questioning the credibility of the evidence by the State witnesses,” he said.
Magistrate Kuhudzai also said the Court is not convinced Chikondo knew the victim Munyaradzi Chifamba was a police officer since the latter admitted during cross-examination that he did not identify himself to the accused (Chikondo) the vehicle he exited was unmarked and he was not wearing a police uniform.
“The consistent element is that the victim has to be a peace officer, who is executing his or her duties, more so, the accused must be aware that the victim is a peace officer. Assuming that the accused is not privy to the victim being a peace officer, then both charges can not be sustained,” he said.
During the trial, through his lawyer Malvern Mapako, Chikondo denied the allegations arguing that by the time he arrived at Magaya’s prayer mountain in Waterfalls, Harare, the police had already entered the premises and arrested the clergyman making it impossible for him to have interfered with their operations.
Mapako added that Chikondo did not even converse with the officers let alone obstruct the course of justice. He maintained that arriving only after the police had already entered the scene eliminates any possibility that he obstructed their investigation, especially since the officers never identified themselves at any point.
