Online Reporter
PRIVATE investigator and retired police officer Tafadzwa Chidawa, popularly known as Detective Kedha, and his accomplices, were last week acquitted of theft.
Chief magistrate Vongai Guwuriro in her judgment said the complainant’s testimony was marred by inconsistencies which made it hard to believe that Detective Kedha and his accomplices stole from her.
The complainant in the case was Melody Matanhire.
The magistrate said that after Matanhire’s admission that she lied to her husband that she had been robbed, it was hard for the court to believe if anything of that nature ever occurred.
Detective Kedha was being charged with his accomplices Paradza Passmore Matubu, Perseverance Chisango, Malvern Mutanda and Francis Takura.
It ended a case which had raged for more than a year.
According to the State, Matanhire had an affair with Mutanda and he told her that he had about US$100 000 in soiled money that needed cleaning.
The State claimed he told her the process would require US$20 000 in clean bills, which would be mixed with the soiled money and chemicals.
The person who supplied the clean money would earn a commission upon successful completion.
On August 27, 2020, the State claimed Matanhire told Mutanda she had secured the US$20 000 and accompanied him to Blue Ridge Lodge to “clean” the money.
She took the cash from her home in Gen Lorne, Harare, and the State claimed she was unaware that Mutanda had conspired with Detective Kedha, Takura, Matubu, and Chisango to steal it.
At the lodge, the State had claimed, Mutanda asked for the US$20 000, which Matanhire handed over.
He placed it in a cooler box for the cleaning process.
However, the State claimed Detective Kedha and his group, posing as police officers, entered the lodge and assaulted Mutanda, pretending to arrest him.
One of the gang members took the cooler box, and the others escorted Matanhire, later releasing her.
The case divided many on social media with some claiming that Detective Kedha was being framed by the police and this was a case of miscarriage of justice.
Detective Kedha is a social media star is very popular on social media.
This led to many accusations against the State and the police.
However, the ruling by the court that he is not guilty shows that there is justice in this country and it has shamed all those people who were claiming that this was all a hatchet job meant to ensure that Detective Kedha would be jailed.
They came up with many conspiracy theories on social media claiming that the court appearances were just meant to “sanitise” the process and, in the end, it was all going to end up with Detective Kedha being convicted and sent to jail.
We don’t know where these people get their conspiracy theories but what we know is that we have a justice delivery system that is very fair.
It represents the values of fairness and it is not driven by the interests of social media hawks.
