The Victoria Falls Magistrate Court has exonerated Gokwe-Nembudziya National Assembly member, Justice Mayor Wadyajena, who was being accused of criminally insulting the First Lady, Dr Grace Mugabe.
This follows an application by Wadyajena`s lawyer, Givemore Muvhiringi which sought to have the legislator removed from remand on the basis that the charge was unconstitutional.
Victoria Falls magistrate, Ms Lindiwe Maphosa acceded to the defence’s argument that the criminal insult was unconstitutional and eventually placed the legislator off remand.
However, the court dismissed the application on the alternative charge of disorderly behaviour, stated under Section 41 of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act.
The accused will then be required to go on trial on the 1st of February.
The defence counsel will study the judgement and make a decision by the trial date with the possibility of submitting an application to have the matter referred to the Constitutional Court.
“True, we are going to take time to study the judgement because it has just been delivered and then will take the instructions from my application with a possibility that we might refer the constitutionality of Section 41 to the Constitutional Court because we have a feeling that it should suffer the same fate as Section 95. So we still have to make a decision as to what we are going to do come the 1st of February,” said Muvhiringi.
Wadyajena (35) was arrested in Victoria Falls soon after the 15th Zanu PF Annual National People’s Conference in December, for allegedly denigrating Dr Mugabe.
