Charges against minister's sons withdrawn

THE State has withdrawn separate charges against Matabeleland South Provincial Minister of State Abedinico Ncube's two sons, Emmanuel and Macbeth, who were facing assault charges.

Yesterday, charges against Emmanuel and 11 of his mine employees were withdrawn as the people whom they allegedly assaulted could not be located.

For the State, Moses Gondongwe told magistrate Sheila Nazombe that charges were being withdrawn against the 12 miners namely the Minister's son, Emmanuel, 27, Edmore Zulu, 26, Trevor Dube, 33, Daniel Zulu, 33, Michael Mabhena, 32, Brighton Bhalaka, 34, Tonderai Augustine Mapepa, 32, Xolisani Godbe Jamela, 42, Godfrey Ndlovu, 25, Thembelani Ndlovu, 28, Allan Tendekai Mapepa, 29, and Shaun Mushinga, 22, as Mthulisi Mnkandla and Decent Sibanda who had complained that they were assaulted, were nowhere to be found.

Mnkandla and Sibanda were hospitalised after they were attacked, leading to the arrest of Emmanuel and the others. However, the two were later accused of having stolen gold ore from the minister's son.

The withdrawal of the case against Emmanuel and the 11 others was done on the day their trial was supposed to start.

The 11 men as well as Mnkandla and Sibanda were all employed at a mine owned by Emmanuel, Caesar East Mine in Gwanda.

Emmanuel is also the operations manager at the mine.

"Your Worship, the State wishes to withdraw charges before plea. The State is failing to locate the complainants in this matter. The complainants also defaulted court in a case of theft of gold ore and were issued with a warrant of arrest," Gondongwe said.

Allegations were that on May 25 this year at around 11PM, Mnkandla and Sibanda were found in a shaft at Caesar East Mine panning for gold.

Zulu, Dube, Daniel, Mabhena and Bhalaka then arrested them.

The five allegedly tied Mnkandla and Sibanda's hands with wire and allegedly took turns to assault them several times all over their bodies using a hosepipe, wooden sticks and stones.

They allegedly kept them the whole night.

Further allegations were that the following day, on May 26 at around 6AM, the six other accused persons Mapepa, Jamela, Ndlovu, Thembelani, Tendekai, Mushinga and Emmanuel arrived at Caesar Mine.

They allegedly also took turns to assault the two using the same weapons that were used to attack them on the previous day.

Later, Emmanuel and Tendekai allegedly took the two and dumped them in a bushy area near Jacaranda suburb using their motor vehicle.

The assault victims were then seen by a passerby who anonymously reported the matter to the police, leading to the arrest of the 12.

The two were referred to Gwanda Provincial Hospital for treatment and were admitted. They failed to turn up in court last week for allegedly stealing 20% of gold ore from Emmanuel's mine.

Meanwhile, the State on Monday also withdrew assault charges against Macbeth Ncube, 33, who is also Minister Ncube's son, before the same magistrate.

Macbeth also had charges of malicious damage to property withdrawn against him last week after, Wellington Kwashira, 32, indicated that Macbeth had apologised and replaced the damaged property.