By A Correspondent| Gutu Magistrate Mitchell Panavanhu has sentenced a Masvingo man to serve one year in jail after convicting him for an offence, which allegedly involved querying some shenanigans committed by the shadowy Forever Associates of Zimbabwe (FAZ).

51 year-old Goodson Matanda, who resides in Gutu in Masvingo province, had been on trial after he was arrested on 1 June 2023 by Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) officers, following a verbal altercation with FAZ members, who were stationed at a Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) polling station, which had been designated by the elections management body as an inspection centre for purposes of the voters’ roll inspection exercise.

For committing the alleged offence, Matanda was charged with assault
as defined in section 89(1)(a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and
Reform) Act.

During trial, prosecutors alleged that on 1 June 2023 and at Rafamoyo Primary School in Gutu, Matanda assaulted Shamiso Madondo, a resident of Gutu, who is employed as a FAZ member and who had been deployed at the school, writing down some details of people engaged in the inspection of the voters’ roll.

The prosecutors alleged that Matanda arrived and started taking
pictures of Madondo and other ZANU PF political party members, who were at the school using his mobile phone handset.

A misunderstanding reportedly arose after the ZANU PF political party supporters questioned why he was taking pictures of them.

Matanda, prosecutors alleged, then assaulted Madondo during the
altercation and accused her of being used by the ruling ZANU PF
political party.

Matanda, who was represented by Dereck Charamba of Ndlovu and Hwacha Legal Practitioners, and had been out of custody on bail, was on
Friday 11 August 2023 convicted by Magistrate Panavanhu, who sentenced him to serve 12 months in jail.

However, Matanda will only serve 315 hours of community service after Magistrate Panavanhu suspended the jail term on condition of good behavior and him completing the community service.