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VICTORIA Falls resident magistrate Sharon Rosemani last Friday relaxed bail conditions for MDC-T MP, Prince Dubeko Sibanda, who is accused of drugging and raping a 17-year-old schoolgirl after the Clerk of Parliament intervened on his behalf.Sibanda, 40, of Mkhosana Township in Victoria Falls is on $400 bail, and was last month ordered to report twice a week to either Victoria Falls Police Station or Bulawayo Central Police Station on Mondays and Fridays and not to communicate with the complainant or any member of her family.
On Friday, Sibanda applied for variation through his lawyer Givemore Muvhiringi who cited commitments at the National Assembly and submitted a letter from Clerk of Parliament Austin Zvoma confirming that the legislator is a member of a Parliamentary Portfolio Committee and should not miss meetings.
“This letter serves to confirm that Honourable P D Sibanda is a Member of National Assembly for Binga North. He is a member of the Portfolio Committee on Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare which meets every week on Mondays at 10AM and 2PM and the National Assembly sits from Tuesday to Thursday every week,” read a letter from Zvoma.
The defence lawyer argued that his client was a legislator and would therefore not abscond.
“He has to attend to Parliament Portfolio meetings on Mondays and National Assembly sittings between Tuesday and Thursday while on Friday and Saturdays he has to attend to his constituency in Binga and that makes it difficult for him to report in Bulawayo or Victoria Falls,” said Muvhiringi.
Following the submissions, Rosemani reduced the reporting times to just once a week on Wednesday at either Harare Central Police Station or Bulawayo Central.
Sibanda returns to court on May 27.
The state allegations are that Sibanda – a close friend of the complainant’s father who is also a prominent MDC-T activist – offered the teenager’s father $4,000 to cover up the crime.
It is alleged that on November 12 last year, Sibanda gave a lift to the girl who was doing Form Four at a private college. They drove along Kazungula Road and he allegedly offered her a drink which she consumed but immediately became weak and dizzy.
He is alleged to have raped her once in the vehicle without using a condom and later begged her not to report the rape.
The girl only reported the rape to the police recently.
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