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A Harare medical practitioner was recently acquitted against charges of breaching a protection order after the court found no evidence.
Magistrate Caroline Matanga acquitted Evans Chinganga who was arraigned before the court for violating a protection order by allegedly stabbing his ex-wife, Bernadette Rufaro Chimudzi, with an unknown object sometime in May this year.
In acquitting the accused, magistrate Matanga noted that:
“The case lacked evidence which has to be treated with caution as it is likely to have a high risk of falsehood and fabrication.
“It is wrong to deal with such cases as if they were a boxing match between the complainant and the accused.”
This is after the accused through his defence lawyer Hopewell Chitima of Mutandiro, Chitsanga and Chitima Attorneys questioned the credibility of the affidavit that was presented before the court by the complainant.
“For starters, the medical affidavit does not say who actually inflicted the injuries observed on the complainant. By itself, the medical affidavit does not implicate the accused. It simply says the complainant sustained some injuries.
“Having been deposed to by a doctor who did not attend the patient, what is contained in the affidavit relating to the patient cannot be accepted as true and accurate.
“The affidavit could only have been deposed and signed by the person who attended the patient, they are the ones who could have vouched to what is contained in the affidavit,” argued Chitima.
Initially, the State led by Takudzwa Chitenduru, alleged that Chinganga had failed to comply with a protection order that was issued against him and in favor of the complainant sometime in November 2021 under Case No. HRE DV 1880/21.
The state further alleged that the accused failed to comply with the protection order through cutting the Complainant with an unknown sharp object and strangling her on the 16th of May 2023.
Mathew Masinge
Online Reporter