Kariba pastor Phillip Mugadza, who prophesied that President Mugabe will die in October, will stand trial on March 30. Mugadza (46), who is in custody, yesterday appeared before Ms Barbara Chimboza who remanded him to his trial date after the prosecutor Mr Sebastian Mutizirwa notified the court that the docket was now complete.

He is facing charges of causing offence to persons of a particular race, religion, tribe, colour, creed as defined in Section 42 (2) of the Criminal Law and Codification Act (Chapter 9:23).
Mugadza has been in custody since his arrest in January. His bid for freedom recently hit a brick wall after his application for refusal of further remand was dismissed by Ms Chimboza.

In his application then, Mugadza, through his lawyers Messrs Obey Shava and Gift Mutisi, accused the State of infringing on his constitutional rights.

Said Mr Shava: “When we appeared in court on January 19, we were told that investigations were complete and evidence had been compiled for trial purposes.

This court even made a determination to deny the accused person bail based on those submissions.

“It is surprising that the same State is now saying it is not ready for trial. This has an effect of infringing on the accused person’s right to a fair trial within a reasonable period of time. The same reasons being given by the State in its application for postponement today are the same reasons they have been proffering since proceedings commenced.”

The prosecution opposed the application and sought a further postponement of the matter.
The court then gave the State another chance to put its house in order and furnish Mugadza with his trial date which they did yesterday.

It is alleged that on January 12, Mugadza was interviewed by The Zimbabwe Mail website and said President Mugabe was to die in October according to his prophecy.

In the interview, Mugadza caused an offence and insulted the Christian religion and African tradition. – State Media