Paul Nyathi

THE State was left heavily embarrassed on Thursday after wrongly issuing a warrant of arrest for MDC Alliance Harare West MP, Joanna Mamombe.

On Thursday, Harare magistrate Ngoni Nduna issued an arrest warrant for Mamombe after the State claimed the legislator had failed to turn up for court.

Her lawyer Jeremiah Bamu intervened and the warrant of arrest was cancelled as Mamombe was not supposed to appear in court on the day.

“There is confusion as to which matter because the warrant was issued on the charges of publishing falsehoods prejudicial to the State, a case which was postponed to 26 August last week,” Bamu said.

“The matter was initially set for today (Thursday), then State issued summons for them to appear on 31 July. Obey Shava (lawyer) appeared with them on 31 July and had the matter was postponed to 26 September.

“The State issued summons again and we came back to court on August 4 and the date was corrected from 26 September to 26 August, ” Bamu explained.