A DAY after Prophet Walter Magaya dragged Prophet Emmanuel Makandiwa’s UFIC into his legal challenges, he is set to take the witness stand today in a bid to motivate his application for referral to the Constitutional Court. Magaya, who is facing rape charges, has written to the Prosecutor General seeking the recusal of top prosecutor Tendayi Shonhayi from his case, accusing her of being biased because she is a member of a rival church, UFIC. In the letter that was tendered in court by his lawyers Messrs Admire Rubaya and Everson Chatambudza yesterday, Magaya accused Shonhayi of being conflicted.
He accused her of using emotions and doing the bidding for her own “Papa” Prophet Makandiwa in circumstances where she should be detached from the case. “Our client instructs, and has it on good authority, that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is a member of a rival church known as United Family International Church (UFIC), which is considered by our client as a rival church to Magaya’s church, PHD Ministries, as well as to Magaya himself. “It is our client’s considered view that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is on a mission of her own to try and persecute him on the basis that she wants to destroy our client’s church for the benefit of UFIC, which is a competing rival church.
”Our client is aware that Ms Tendayi Shonhayi is the one who unilaterally made the decision to move his trial from court 15, which is an open court, to the Victim-Friendly Court, even before the presiding trial magistrate had determined if the matter was to be heard in the Victim-Friendly Court using intermediaries for the alleged victims.” Magaya’s application to the Constitutional Court follows the State’s successful application to have his rape trial heard in camera, a move set in motion to protect its witnesses which have been deemed vulnerable. The prophet, who is appearing before Harare regional magistrate Estere Chivasa, is seeking to have an order to set that aside. Magaya said he wants the Constitutional Court to answer whether Magistrate Chivasa’s order for the State’s witnesses to testify through intermediaries in a Victim Friendly Court, solely on the basis of the contents of the State outline and in the absence of the court conducting an independent interview, is consistent with his constitutional guarantees.
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He also wants the superior court to answer whether the order by Magistrate Chivasa to have the matter heard in camera does not violate his rights to a fair hearing. “I was taken aback by the fact that the court relied solely on the mere say so of the State counsel that the witnesses were vulnerable witnesses and where the judicial officer unsolicited confessed to have relied on the alleged outline of the State case which contains mere allegations from the State and which had not yet been placed on record. “There is a danger as to the real possibility that the honourable court`s independence, and expected impartiality, is now compromised given that the trial magistrate will give way to the mere say so of State counsel even where the law allows her to make an independent assessment on anything relating to my trial. “I assert that there is clear evidence that justice is now being sacrificed on the altar of expediency to the extent of the honourable court just simply believing the State counsel`s word of mouth regards the alleged vulnerability of the alleged victims compelling the adult, ordinary, non-vulnerable witnesses to proceed to testify through intermediaries in a victim friendly court in the absence of independent interviews being conducted by the trial magistrate.”
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