INCARCERATED RMG End Time Message founder ounder, Robert Martin Gumbura appeal against both conviction and a 40-year effective jail term is set to be heard at the High Court tomorrow before judges of appeal Justices Charles Hungwe and Edith Mushore.
Robert Martin Gumbura
The appeal was supposed to be heard in August last year, but was postponed indefinitely when Gumbura’s lawyers and the Prosecutor-General’s (PG) representative were locked in a showdown over how to proceed with the matter.
Gumbura was in February 2014 slapped with a 50-year jail term by Harare regional magistrate, Hosea Mujaya, who convicted him on four counts of rape and a count of possessing pornographic material, but suspended 10 years on condition of good behaviour.
Since his incarceration, Gumbura has made several applications for bail pending appeal, but all were dismissed by the courts on the basis that he was not a suitable candidate for bail, but rather a flight risk.
During the last hearing when Gumbura’s lawyers, Tapson Dzvetero and Advocate Sylvester Hashiti appeared before Justices David Mangota and Felistas Chatukuta, Hashiti applied to have Gumbura’s appeal postponed indefinitely on the basis that he wanted to file heads of argument in respect of four appeals and also to have the matters consolidated before arguing the appeal.
Prosecutor, Editor Mavuto initially challenged the postponement sought arguing the lawyers had ambushed him and that he was not even aware of which matters the legal practitioners wanted consolidated.
Mavuto argued it was news to him that the lawyers were seeking a postponement of the matter and wondered which matters they wanted to consolidate because Gumbura had another case at the Harare Magistrates’ Court which was pending and which had nothing to do with the rape appeal.
Hashiti and Dzvetero later apologised to Mavuto for their failure to notify him of their intentions, but insisted they wanted their client’s matters consolidated and dealt with at once, not “piecemeal”.
The matter was then postponed indefinitely only to be set down for hearing after over a year.-amh
