ZANU PF activist Sybeth Musengezi was granted US$100 bail on Wednesday following his arrest on Tuesday for an alleged assault.
Musengezi, 40, appeared before Harare Magistrate Ruth Moyo, where he was not asked to enter a plea. His case was remanded to April 30 for trial.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), Musengezi is accused of assaulting airtime vendor Norest Taruberekere after the vendor allegedly interrupted Musengezi’s press conference.
Taruberekere told Magistrate Moyo that he had been chasing after a colleague who had run into the Media Centre, the venue for the disrupted press briefing, after snatching an airtime recharge card.
He alleged that his colleague ran up to the second floor where Musengezi was holding the conference. Taruberekere claimed that Musengezi then confronted him, asking what he wanted, before assaulting him by slapping him in the face with open hands. Said Taruberekera:
I then stopped and asked why he was assaulting me but instead, he told his friends to take videos of our altercation.
Musengezi, a presumed ally of Vice President Constantino Chiwenga, had organised a media briefing to discuss the state of the economy. However, the event quickly descended into chaos.
Two men, wearing green aprons, typically worn by airtime vendors, and covering their faces, gatecrashed the briefing. They tore down Musengezi’s banners and forced him out of the Media Centre, an incident witnessed by journalists who had arrived to cover the event.
A group of police officers then intervened, forcing Musengezi out of the venue and onto a truck waiting outside.
Musengezi has garnered attention in recent years for challenging the legitimacy of President Emmerson Mnangagwa in court.
In 2021, he filed a lawsuit claiming that Mnangagwa’s rise to power in 2017 was unconstitutional, arguing that the central committee meeting that elevated him was improperly convened.
More: ZimLive
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