Minister wants culpable homicide conviction quashed

Minister wants culpable homicide conviction quashed

• Minister sped off after hitting pedestrian

By Staff Reporter

SIKHANYISO Ndlovu, Zimbabwe's deputy Higher Education Minister could go scot free from a jailable culpable homicide conviction after his lawyers picked some holes in his conviction.

Ndlovu was convicted of culpable homicide after he struck and killed a pedestrian but failed to stop. Ndlovu only returned to the scene after "suspecting that he struck something", according to prosecutors.

However, his lawyers now want the conviction declared unsafe citing several irregularities in the handling of his case.

Last week, Ndlovu's lawyers were successful in their High Court application seeking a review of both the case and conviction. Justice Maphios Cheda granted an application for a review of the case.

Ndlovu's lawyers have cited magistrate Sibongile Msipa and the Attorney General’s Office as the first and second respondents respectively.

Ndlovu wants a fresh trial under a different magistrate, or an acquittal.

His lawyers say the magistrate failed to grant Ndlovu a right of reply at the close of trial and prosecution "never supplied its submission to the defence to exercise the right to reply on points of law or to have sight of the documents.”

In court papers, Ndlovu argued: “I have no choice, but to seek an order setting aside the judgment and a fresh trial de novo (starting afresh). Msipa's decision cannot stand due to the apparent miscarriage of justice. I stand a chance of losing my (driver’s) licence or custodial terms and I simply want justice done.

“I had a right to amplify the submissions before the judgement and such a chance was not granted to me."

Ndlovu was convicted of causing the death of Perkhams on October 5, 2003, while driving a Honda Accord at about 8pm. The accident took place on Leopold Takawira Avenue in Bulawayo.

Prosecutors said Ndlovu was travelling at a speed which was "excessive in the circumstances" which had led to a "failure to stop or act reasonably when (an) accident seemed imminent". Ndlovu had also failed "to keep vehicle under proper control,” they said.

Ndlovu's lawyers had sought to prove that the accident was not forseeable, as the victim was “putting on dark clothes, walking on the wrong side of the road and walking underneath trees."

Ndlovu also denied he had lost control of the vehicle, saying: "No vehicle veered off the road, the accident was not reasonably foreseeable and the death of the deceased was not foreseeable."
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