By Thandiwe Garusa

AMALGAMATED Rural Teachers Union of Zimbabwe (ARTUZ) leader Obert Masaraure has been ordered to seek bail at the High Court after his application challenging arrest was dismissed by magistrate Dennis Mangosi.

Masaraure is accused of pushing his colleague Roy Issa to death from the seventh floor of a local hotel in 2016.

He denies the allegations.

Masaraure had challenged remand arguing that the case against him was fabricated and politically motivated.

He also complained that an inquest into Issa’s death ruled out foul play but police had ignored that fact.

The government critic through his lawyer Douglas Coltart, had requested that the State should avail the inquest report after the clerk of court refused to comply.

The court however ruled that it is his duty to look for the report in preparation for his defence.

Masaraure also said allegations against him were baseless and cannot prove that he should be placed on remand.

Coltart told the court that the constant change in the allegations proves that there is no proper reason to place his client on remand.

He further said the allegations do not highlight the role his client played in the death of the now deceased.

“We are told that the accused ganged up to assault the now deceased, but we were not told what role the accused person played and we do not even know the names of the accomplices.

“We are not told how many they are, for all we know from the allegations, they could be a hundred of them,” said Coltart.

However the State represented by Anesu Chirenje submitted that there was reasonable suspicion that Masaraure committed the offence.

The union leader has been placed on remand to July 1.