‘Boat owner, crew had intentions to kill’

Prosecutor Mr Michael Reza requested the court to place the boat owner and crew on their defence, saying they had a case to answer.
Latif Ameer (53) and crew members Fadil Ramon Weale (27), Enock Yolani Zulu (36) and Joseph Abrahams (37) are facing 11 counts of culpable homicide.
Mr Reza, in his written response filed at the Harare Magistrates’ Court last week, said the quartet had the intention to kill the children.
This was after the defence had applied for discharge at the close of the State case.
“It is clear from the evidence led in court at the State case stage that the four accused persons sought to kill the 19 persons on board Chasura 1 on December 25,” said Mr Reza.
“(They) drove the boat to the middle of the lake in failing light, did not provide life jackets and over-loaded the boat.
“They drove the boat further into the lake then gave each other the okay signal and switched off the engine.
“This clearly shows that they sought to kill effectively.”
Mr Reza said the accused, by loading 21 people in a boat with a sitting capacity of seven people, was like making the children to pay for their death.
“When accused two (Zulu) stopped the engine, accused four (Weale) never asked why the engine had stalled,” he said.
“Zulu never told Weale that there was a problem with the engine or that it had stalled.
“Instead, Weale told the people in the boat to kiss their lives goodbye for they were all going to die before waving them goodbye and jumped into the water.
“Zulu also told the people to save their lives before following his colleague.
“Here are two people entrusted with the lives of all the people in the boat leaving them in the middle of the lake and some of the people were aged between two and seven years.”
Mr Reza further submitted that of all the accused persons, Ameer was the most guilty because he owned the boat that was not registered, had no life jackets and no fire extinguisher. Ameer, said Mr Reza, also overloaded the boat and allowed an unlicensed driver to operate it.
Mr Reza queried why Ameer never admonished any of the other accused persons for having unlawfully used his boat.
Earlier in his defence, Ameer told the court that he did not authorise Zulu to drive the boat.
Zulu, who is not represented, told the court that he had a licence, but it got lost in the water when the boat capsized.
But the chief surveyor of vessels in the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Infrastructure Development, Mr Lameck Chitenga, said the licence should have floated.
Mr Jacob Jogee, who is appearing for Abrahams, submitted that there was no evidence to prove that his client negligently committed the offence.
On the other hand Mr Hamios Mukonoweshuro, who is representing Ameer and Weale, argued that in respect of his clients, there was no evidence before the court to warrant placing them on their defence.
Magistrate Mr Tendai Mahwe is expected to deliver the ruling on the placing of the quartet to their defence today.