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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO-based cross-border transport operator commonly known as umalayitsha who uprooted concrete barricades at Beitbridge Border Post resulting in vehicles leaving the customs yard without being searched by the Zimbabwe Revenue Authority (Zimra), has been granted $100 bail by the High Court.
Philemon Sibanda (35) was part of a group of omalayitsha who recently demonstrated at Beitbridge Border Post against Zimra before forcing their way through a boom gate and escaping with their vehicles loaded with goods imported from South Africa.
Sibanda of Emganwini together with Tawanda Jaison (35), Solomon Ngcame (44), Nhlanhla Mkhize (44), Shumani Leonard Mudau (43), Shamiso Sibanda (58) and Bhekimpilo Ntini (43), appeared before Beitbridge magistrate Mr Godswill Mavenge charged with public violence.
Initially Sibanda was denied bail by a magistrate and advised to apply to the High Court.
In denying him bail, the magistrate had said there was a likelihood that Sibanda would abscond to South Africa if given bail due to the nature of his job.
Sibanda, through his lawyers Tanaka Law Chambers, filed an appeal at the Bulawayo High Court challenging the refusal by the magistrate to grant him bail.
In papers before the court, the State was cited as the respondent.
Justice Maxwell Takuva granted Sibanda $100 bail and ordered him to surrender his passport to the clerk of court in Beitbridge.
The judge also ordered Sibanda to reside at his given residential address and report thrice a week at Emganwini Police Station until the matter is finalised.
He ordered him not to interfere with State witnesses as part of the bail conditions.
In his grounds of appeal, Sibanda said the magistrate erred by concluding that he was a flight risk basing on the fact that he is a cross border driver.
“The learned magistrate erred in deciding that the appellant (Sibanda) was a flight risk yet he offered to surrender his travel documents,” argued Sibanda’s lawyers.
Mr Thompson Hove for the State opposed bail, arguing that there was no guarantee that if granted bail Sibanda would not abscond given the nature of his work as a cross-border driver.
According to court papers, on July 30 this year at around midnight, Sibanda and his accomplices and acting in common purpose with others who are still at large, forcibly removed the cement barricades which block vehicles from leaving the customs searching point before being searched by authorities. As a result some vehicles which were carrying imported goods escaped without being searched resulting in the State being prejudiced of customs duty.
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