Gukurahundi priest placed off remand

Hwange Magistrate Tomupei Madibha  on Wednesday placed the Catholic Priest Father Marko Mkandla off remand after the key state witnesses failed to turn up in court and testify against the cleric.

Mkandla was arrested in April last year alongside National Healing Minister Moses Mzila for holding a mass for Gukurahundi victims in Lupane.

 They were both charged for allegedly contravening the Public Order and Security Act for convened a meeting without notifying the police.

The magistrate was forced to put Mnkandla off remand as the witnesses did not turn up to court for the umpteenth time since the beginning of the trial in April last year.

The state could not give any clear reasons why the witnesses failed to turn up in court no clear reasons.

Mnkandla's lawyer Lizwe Jamela from the Zimbabwe Lawyers for Human Rights then applied for the cleric to be placed off remand.

The magistrate conceded and ruled that Mkandla be placed off remand and the case proceeds by the way of summons.

Mnkandla was initially remanded out of custody on $500 bail.

Last year, Mnkandla said after his arrest, he was forced to strip naked in front of female police officers at Lupane Police Station.