News / Local
Radio Dialogue boss' court case fails to take off
07 Mar 2014 at 02:26hrs | Views
RADIO DIALOGUE production manager Zenzele Ndebele's case on a charge of possession of smuggled radios in contravention of Section 182 of the Customs and Excise Act, failed to take off yesterday after the court indicated that police papers detailing the charges were not in order.
Ndebele did not get into the dock and his lawyers just conferred with prosecutors who advised them that police papers were not in order and the case was postponed to next week Monday.
Ndebele was arrested in March last year following a police raid at the Radio Dialogue's Ingwe Studios where they reportedly confiscated 180 radio sets on March 1.
Ndebele was briefly detained, questioned and then released.
The police later charged him with possessing radio receivers without valid Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation licences in contravention of Section 38 of the Broadcasting Services Act.
However, the persistent shift of charges against Ndebele resulted in the continued postponement of the case.
The swoop on Radio Dialogue last year followed the police's ban on the possession of "specially designed radios" and other communication devices on February 19 2013 on suspicion that they were used to communicate hate speech ahead of Zimbabwe's referendum and general elections.
At the time of the ban, chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba told a news conference in Harare that possession and distribution of the devices in question was illegal.
She accused some political parties of distributing the "illegal devices" to unsuspecting members of the public with the intention "to sow seeds of disharmony within the country, especially now that the country is about to embark on the referendum and harmonised elections".
Ndebele did not get into the dock and his lawyers just conferred with prosecutors who advised them that police papers were not in order and the case was postponed to next week Monday.
Ndebele was arrested in March last year following a police raid at the Radio Dialogue's Ingwe Studios where they reportedly confiscated 180 radio sets on March 1.
Ndebele was briefly detained, questioned and then released.
The police later charged him with possessing radio receivers without valid Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation licences in contravention of Section 38 of the Broadcasting Services Act.
However, the persistent shift of charges against Ndebele resulted in the continued postponement of the case.
The swoop on Radio Dialogue last year followed the police's ban on the possession of "specially designed radios" and other communication devices on February 19 2013 on suspicion that they were used to communicate hate speech ahead of Zimbabwe's referendum and general elections.
At the time of the ban, chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba told a news conference in Harare that possession and distribution of the devices in question was illegal.
She accused some political parties of distributing the "illegal devices" to unsuspecting members of the public with the intention "to sow seeds of disharmony within the country, especially now that the country is about to embark on the referendum and harmonised elections".
Source - Southern Eye
