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Court Reporter
Clergyman Walter Magaya has written to the Prosecutor General seeking the recusal of top prosecutor Ms Tendayi Shonhayi from his case, accusing her of being biased because she is a member of a rival church, UFIC.
In the letter that was tendered in court by his lawyers Messrs Admire Rubaya and Everson Chatambudza on Tuesday, Magaya accused Ms Shonhayi of being conflicted.
He accused her of using emotions and is doing the bidding for her own “PAPA” Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa in circumstances where she should be detached from the case.
This reporter had sight of the letter, which in part read: “Our client instructs, and has it on good authority, that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is a member of a rival church known as United Family International Church (UFIC), which is considered by our client as a rival church to Magaya’s church, PHD Ministries, as well as to Magaya himself.
“It is our client’s considered view that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is on a mission of her own to try and persecute him on the basis that she wants to destroy our client’s church for the benefit of UFIC, which is a competing rival church.
”Our client is aware that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is the one who unilaterally made the decision to move his trial from court 15, which is an open court, to the Victim-Friendly Court, even before the presiding trial magistrate had determined if the matter was to be heard in the Victim-Friendly Court using intermediaries for the alleged victims.”
They further accused her of preparing the charge sheet, state outline and witness statements, which had no names of the alleged complainants in contravention of Section 146 of the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act.
“She only had to serve Magaya’s defence counsel with new charge sheets, which now had names after they had taken her to task,” read the letter.
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“She further had to write the witness names on the typed witness statements using a blue pen. For your convenience, we have attached the defective documents that our client was once served with.
”Our client has also observed that the proceedings seem to be marred by the overbearing preponderance of Ms Shonhayi, who is not the lead counsel. Instead of leaving Mr Clemence Chimbari (lead counsel) to argue, she is always seen whispering something to him, showing that she is the one in charge.”
They also indicated that their client was aware that Ms Shonhayi has requested the bail record with indications that she intends to appeal against the granting of bail by the High Court of Zimbabwe.
“She had previously raised flimsy reasons for the recusal of Justice Mandaza, who was originally seized with the bail matter.
”When she proceeded to the case management meeting with Justice Mandaza she was already armed with an application for recusal of the judge in circumstances where she had already placed her oral submissions before the Judge.
“It is the client’s contention that Ms Shonhayi is not impartial in this matter as required by the law for a Prosecutor.
“She clearly has a personal agenda emanating from her personal hatred against both the Accused person and his church. It is therefore not in the interests of justice that she is allowed to continue being part of the prosecuting team, given this background,” read the letter.
The National Prosecuting Authority is yet to respond.
Magaya is expected to testify in court on Wednesday in his application for referral to the Constitutional Court that arose after the State successfully applied to have the matter heard in a closed court.
