Harare, Zimbabwe: Harare magistrate Appollonia Marutya fined the culprit who assaulted the Deputy Minister of Tourism and Hospitality Industry – Tongai Mnangagwa, US $200. The accused man assaulted the Deputy Minister and his host at the party – Wellington Vengesai, following a misunderstanding over parking space.
The culprit is identified as Munyaradzi Antony Mwedziwendira, aged 30, was convicted at his own plea of guilty and has been put behind bars for two months, when he appeared before Harare Magistrate Marutya.
As per the sources, after his arrest for an assault charge, police had already received a report that besides being involved in a brawl, Mwedziwendira was allegedly dealing in illegal drug smuggling, suspecting which they did a double investigation.
The sentence in the assault case was only a modest fine. He did not go free and was remanded in custody today for his bail hearing on three other charges of dealing in dangerous drugs and was charged jointly with his employee – Jasper Cephas Kuziva.
Considering the case, prosecutor Thomas Chanakira said that last Tuesday around 10:15 PM, Deputy Minister Mnangagwa and Handson Gapa walked out of Vengesai’s apartment at Trude Mansions on the corner of Sixth Street and Leonid Brezhnev (formerly Fife) Avenue in Harare after a party.
The prosecutor added that on his way to the parking lot, Vengesai encountered Mwedziwendira, who was talking at the top of his voice and complaining that Vengesai and his friends had parked their vehicles in a way that blocked his motor vehicles.
Reportedly, Mwedziwendira charged towards Deputy Minister Mnangagwa, whom he held by the collar, before turning and charging towards Vengsai.
Mwedziwendira then held Vengesai by his beard using both his hands and asked him why he had not shaved. He went on to threaten to shoot the two but did not produce any firearm. He then was restrained by Mr Gapa before he drove off at high speed.
As per the reports, Mwedziwendira and Kuziva are facing three counts of unlawful possession of mbanje, unspecified medicines and unregistered medicines for resale.
Following this, Mr Chanakira said that police received a report that Mwedziwendira and Kuziva were dealing in dangerous drugs at the Fife Avenue shopping centre and that they had been involved in a brawl with some members of the public.
After that, the detectives went to the shopping centre, where the two fled, leaving behind four vehicles. The vehicles were then placed under police guard for 24 hrs pending the arrest of the two. On Wednesday at around mid-day, the two accused persons were arrested and Kuziva was found in possession of the car keys.
Later on, police searched the vehicles and recovered a silver BMW 530I, a red VW, Mercedes Benz C240 and another silver Mercedes Benz C220 and recovered two sachets of mbanje and a passport in the name of Antony Mwedziwendira from the Mercedes Benz C220.
Along with this, cops recovered 26 prepared cigarettes of mbanje, 21 sachets of dagga, 30 pentral-50 pills, Sildenafil tablets, eight cobra 120 tablets, 13 black cobra 150, 7 black cobra 200 tablets, nine sex force, 100mg sildenafil citrate tablets, four Oto tablets, one satchet of Viamax power sex coffee, one satchet of super power capsules passion energy, one sachet of man king tablet, one sachet of Bang Bang strong man capsule and one sachet of AK 47 super.
Additionally, the police also recovered mbanje packaged as 67 rods and 156 satchets in a black cooler box placed in the boot. The vehicles were then towed to Milton Park Police Station for safekeeping. The recovered drugs had a street value of $825,000. The seized drugs and the vehicles are being held as exhibits.