Dexter Nduna battles to stop prosecution

CHEGUTU West legislator Dexter Nduna has filed an urgent application seeking to stop his prosecution on alleged political violence charges.

Nduna filed the application last week at the High Court. He is jointly charged with Munyaradzi Simango and Takemore Maphosa. Nduna argues that Chegutu resident magistrate Ms Judith Taruvinga violated his rights when he denied him an opportunity to seek legal representation.

Nduna wants to stop criminal proceedings against him.

"There can be no basis, in the era of modern constitutional jurisprudence, for a court of law to deny an accused person legal representation," he said.

"The applicants herein were denied the right to a fair trial in terms of the precincts of the constitutional provisions which my legal counsel shall amplify in heads of argument."

Nduna said the magistrate failed to protect the rights of the suspects and the trial must be stopped.

"The second respondent for the interests of justice cannot be allowed to go ahead with the trial under the circumstances already alluded to," he said.

"In any event, even if she was to try and proceed with the case the applicants would jump to apply that she recuses herself. The second respondent clearly failed to protect the right of unrepresented accused persons and instead did the contrary."

Sometime in May, Nduna and his supporters allegedly acted violently at Chinengundu Primary School, leading to the injury of one person.