LOVEMORE Matombo, the president of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) was on Friday cleared on a charge of assaulting his daughter-in-law after a magistrate ruled that lack of witnesses made it unsafe to convict him.

Matombo walked out of the Harare Magistrates' Court in the company of his lawyers Alec Muchadehama and Andrew Makoni after prosecutors failed to prove a case against him.

He was accused of beating up his son's wife Mary-Ane Nyathi in February this year. The case has since spilled into the civil court, where it is still pending.

Magistrate Robson Finsin ruled that the case was a "one-witness matter" without any independent evidence and it was not safe for him to convict.

Finsin said the evidence of the second state witness, Tangirai Mukondo, a security guard manning Nyathi's residence was riddled with inconsistencies and that he was not a credible witness.

Finsin said: "No-one saw the complainant being assaulted. The security guard testified that he did not see the accused person assaulting the complainant.

"Since no independent evidence was led by the State to establish the alleged

assault and that the security guard testified that he had been told what to say in court by the complainant, the accused is therefore discharged at the close of the State case."

The trade unionist was arrested early March and has been out of custody on free bail.

The prosecution alleged that on February 11 this year, Matombo drove to the house of his son Freddy to settle a domestic dispute between the couple. Matombo had a misunderstanding with Freddy's wife.

The court heard that Matombo assaulted the woman before the matter was reported to the police.