Plotholder denies negligently starting fire

Matilda Dube (58) of Plot 7(b) Hope Road, Montgomery, and Menelisi Maphosa (24), of Plot 6, Rosetta Road, Montgomery, pleaded not guilty to negligently causing serious damage to property or alternatively without authority light or assist in lighting or use or rekindle fire before Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Godwin Sengweni.
Dube and Maphosa through their lawyer, Mr Zibusiso Charles Ncube of Phulu and Ncube said on 6 September last year, they saw a fire blazing about 1,5km east of Dube’s plot.
They decided to construct a fire guard to the south of her field as the field is bounded to the east and north by a gravel road about five to six metres wide which acts as a fire guard.
The fireguard was to be constructed and then Maphosa was to light and tend the fire on the field as a precautionary measure to prevent it from spreading from the east and feed on the tall grass that had grown on her field.
It is their claim that they tended to the fire that they had started until it died out.
Ms Sifiso Ndlovu leading evidence from Ms Sazini Suzan Sibanda of Plot 7 (a) Rosetta Road, Montgomery, where property was gutted by the veld fire, said on the day, she was phoned at around 11.15 am by Svedai Makuvisa who informed her that there was fire on the eastern side of her plot.
“I was at the Woodville shops and proceeded home and on arrival I discovered that the two houses which were both thatched were on fire.
“Property under fire included my 10-roomed main house, which held all my property and belongings and a four-roomed cottage, which also had property,” she testified.
She added that seven motor vehicles parked near the house were completely destroyed and that an eighth vehicle was partially destroyed.
The value of the destroyed property she said was $357 112.
The trial had to be postponed to 27 February to allow Ms Sibanda to familiarise herself with a sketch plan that the pair’s defence counsel introduced during cross-examination.
She did not seem to comprehend what the sketch plan of the area and some photographs that the defence counsel wanted to use during cross-examination stood for, prompting Ms Ndlovu to ask the court to postpone the case so as to allow her to discuss the evidence with her witness.
Dube and Maphosa are out of custody.