adminGwanda Correspondent
THE president of the Zimbabwe Miners Federation (ZMF), Trynos Nkomo (47), had reason to smile yesterday when he was acquitted of impairing the dignity of Vice- President Joice Mujuru.Nkomo was facing charges of criminal insult (impairing the dignity of VP Mujuru) or alternatively charges of deliberately supplying false information to a public authority by saying that VP Mujuru was his partner in a company called Matshamahle Mining Private Limited.
He pleaded not guilty when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate Ms Sheila Nazombe. Ms Nazombe found Nkomo not guilty of impairing the dignity of VP Mujuru but found him guilty of supplying false information to a public authority.
He was fined $200 or 60 days in prison. In addition he was sentenced to one month imprisonment which was wholly suspended for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence within that period.
In passing the sentence, Ms Nazombe said she had taken into consideration that Nkomo was a mature first time offender and a family man.
She said the State had failed to prove its case that Nkomo’s utterances intended to damage VP Mujuru’s dignity but said it was clear that Nkomo wanted to obtain advantage over the police by mentioning a high profile name as they were investigating him for externalising gold.
“You sent the police officers on a wild goose chase. Police work with limited resources and had to channel their resources and energy to this particular investigation. You showed lack of respect for the law,” said Ms Nazombe.
The State represented by Mr Blessing Gundani had said Nkomo’s utterances were targeted at stalling police investigations on the alleged externalisation of gold.
In mitigation, Nkomo’s lawyer, Mr Patrick Tererai of Tererai Legal Practitioners argued that Nkomo’s utterances did not in any way bar the police officers from proceeding with their investigations.
“The words uttered by the accused person were not legally barring the police from carrying out their duties,” he said.
Allegations by the State were that on 27 May this year, detectives from Gwanda Minerals Unit went to Nkomo’s mine after receiving information that he was externalising gold.
When Nkomo was asked to produce the mine certificates, he is said to have said that all the mine documents were with VP Mujuru in Harare.
The information was verified and it turned out that Nkomo lied to gain some advantage over the police. The VP in her affidavit which was produced in court distanced herself from the so-called partnership.
Nkomo also denied ever saying that he was in a partnership with the VP but told the court that he told police officers that the mine documents were with the VP’s lawyers as she helped small scale miners source some investors.
Online Reporter