A JUDGE has blasted what he described as shoddy police work when quashing the conviction of a Bulawayo man for allegedly causing a traffic accident that involved co-Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi’s wife, Tambudzai.
Businessman Kenneth Drummond was convicted and fined Z$150 000 (or two months in prison) for negligent driving following the accident which occurred at about 9pm on the Harare-Masvingo road in November 2006.
Drummond however, challenged the conviction in the Appeal Court.
The court heard that the accident occurred when Drummond encroached onto the opposite lane as he tried to overtake a Zimbabwe National Army truck.
Mohadi, who was travelling in the other direction, just managed slightly to swerve her Mercedes Benz vehicle out of the way barely avoiding a head-on collision although both vehicles were still damaged extensively.
In quashing the lower court’s conviction Appeal Court judge, Justice Nicholas Mathonsi, with Justice Maphios Cheda agreeing, found that the state had failed to prove Drummond’s guilt beyond reasonable doubt.
The judges said it was the army driver, instead, who had caused the accident by putting an “invisible” vehicle on the road.
“There is a reason for why a vehicle is required to have rear lights and reflectors at the back. It is to alert other drivers of the presence of that vehicle on the road,” Justice Mathonsi said.
“That danger required the appellant to take avoiding action which led to the collision with both the army vehicle and the Mercedes Benz. The appellant cannot be said to have been negligent.”
The judge also blasted police for trying creating an impression that the army vehicle was not involved in the incident and pretending that it had actually “not existed”.
“Otherwise there would be no explanation for its (army truck) exclusion from the traffic accident book and the signal failure to bring its driver to testify. It is an attempt to pull the wool over the court’s eye, which is as unsavory as it is unacceptable. It is an injustice that should be condemned,” he said.
Justice Mathonsi added that police had done a shoddy job of investigating the accident and disregarded Drummond’s statement that he had tried to overtake after seeing the army truck in front of him late because was not visible as it had no rear lights or reflector.
“The police officer who attended the scene, Constable Mathe, did a shoddy job indeed,” Justice Mathonsi said in his ruling.
“Constable Mathe did not bother to check the army truck. He testified that the army truck was not entered in the traffic accident book, he did not investigate it at all, and he did not put it on his sketch plan.”