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Mr Mashamhanda last week testified as a prosecution witness in the case involving four men accused of delivering sodium cyanide instead of aluminium sulphate to Morton Jaffray Waterworks.
Simon Demhe, a truck driver at Astra Transport in Bulawayo, his manager Farai Muchenje, Appronalise Mupakaviri of CureChem and Tiki Tarwirei, a clearing agent, are accused of contravening sections of the Water Act and the Environmental Management Act.
Mashamhanda, of MT&N, dismissed allegations that there was conspiracy to send the deadly chemical to the treatment plant. He said a truck containing aluminum sulphate was wrongly sent to Bak Storage in Harare instead of Morton Jaffray.
Mashamhanda said it was due to human error that the truck was sent to the plant.
However, prosecutor Mr Reza yesterday told the court that the State would not call its witness, an MT&N worker, because of Mashamhanda’s statements.
“In view of the stance taken by the managing director of MT&N, Mr Mashamhanda, which was tantamount to being hostile to the State case, the State is no longer calling the other witness from MT&N. I have advised my learned colleague, Mr Chikomo for the defence, that if he so wishes, he can have that other witness as his defence witness,” he said.
Mr Reza then called another witness, Mr Felix Nyaruwanga from Freight World forwarding and clearing company, who claimed the delivery was a genuine mistake.
He said that there was a mix-up on the documents resulting in sodium cyanide being sent to the water purification plant instead of being delivered to Bak Storage.
The case continues today when the investigating officer, Chief Superintendent Crispen Makedenge, is expected to testify. The State alleged that on July 16 last year Demhe left Beira, Mozambique, for Zimbabwe with a CureChem Overseas (Pvt) Ltd consignment of 19 580kg of sodium cyanide.
He said the consignment was cleared into Zimbabwe by Zimra only at Forbes Border Post. The cyanide was eventually delivered to Morton Jaffray.
dyton mupawaenda
Online Reporter