Fraser Mpofu
13 March 2008
Harare — The sensational court case in which a prominent transport operator on the Gaborone-Bulawayo road is charged with hiring hit men to kill a rival has taken a new twist.
This comes after key state witnesses gave contradictory evidence in court last week. As a result, Sindiso Mazibisa, the lawyer representing the accused, Ray Dokotela-Moyo, has applied to be discharged at the end of the state case at the Bulawayo magistrate's court.
The case was remanded to today, when Sikhumbuzo Nyathi, the presiding magistrate will make a ruling on the application for a discharge. Dokotela-Moyo, proprietor of Dokotela Omnibus Company, whose buses travel the Bulawayo-Gaborone route, is accused of hiring two Zimbabweans, Tinashe Marima and Mathew Moyo, to kill Sibonginkosi Moyo for allegedly frustrating his business interests in Francistown.
Dokotela-Moyo, aged 50, of Selbourne Park in Bulawayo, reappeared in court last week before Sikhumbuzo Nyathi.
He pleaded not guilty to contravening Section 187 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law Act, Chapter 9:23, which deals with incitement to commit murder.
Prosecutor, Jeremiah Mutsindikwa, told the court that Sibonginkosi Moyo, the complainant, had information that Dokotela-Moyo had hired Mathew Moyo and Marima to kill him for 'harassing his bus crews and passengers' in Botswana. But Mathew Moyo, who at the beginning of the sensational case in January said he, together with Marima, had indeed been hired to commit the murder, changed his testimony.
He told the court last week that Dokotela-Moyo had only given them a task to protect his buses and business interests in Botswana, not to murder Sibonginkosi Moyo. The other witness, Marima is believed to be out of Bulawayo and has been absconding.
Mutsindikwa, faced with discordant evidence and the absence of another key witness, could not proceed with the case and closed it. Mazibisa then applied for discharge. The defence lawyer said Dokotela-Moyo could not be called upon to defend himself because the state's case was weakened by the contrasting evidence. Mutsindikwa agreed with Mazibisa. The state's case was that on January 16 this year, Dokotela-Moyo called Marima and Mathew Moyo to his offices in Bulawayo and told them he wanted Sibonginkosi Moyo killed. The bus operator accused the complainant of frustrating his business on the lucrative Bulawayo-Gaborone route.
Mutsindikwa told the court that Dokotela-Moyo gave Marima and Mathew Moyo $400 million, P80,000 at the official rate or about P120 using the widely used parallel market exchange rate, to travel to Francistown where the complainant lives.
Dokotela-Moyo is accused of also promising the two another $1billion or P200,000 or P300 after they killed Sibonginkosi Moyo, a bus inspector at Fellowship Bus Company, another operator on the route.
But the alleged would-be assassins, who are friends of Sibonginkosi Moyo, telephoned and told him that Dokotela-Moyo had hired them to murder him.Upon receiving the tip-off, the complainant left Francistown for Bulawayo. He teamed up with Mathew Moyo and Marima and confronted Dokotela-Moyo.
The bus operator, the court heard, asked why the plaintiff was still alive when he wanted him dead and went on to threaten to hire South African hit men to commit the murder. Subsequently, Sibonginkosi Moyo reported the case to the police resulting in Dokotela-Moyo's arrest.
The defendant is out on $50 million bail.
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