FIVE MONTHS LATER, MACHINGURA’S GHOST STILL CASTS A SHADOW OVER HIS GANG’S TRIAL
FIVE months after their suspected ring leader, Godknows Machingura, was shot and killed by police in the Arcadia neighbourhood of Harare, the trial of four suspected robbers who survived the shoot-out, is finally expected to get underway in Harare today.
However, Machingura’s ghost, which has troubled a number of musical artists which he used to deal, and even play with, is still casting a shadow over this trial.
His accomplices, who are now set to go for trial, are even requesting that the State furnishes them with confirmation from a doctor that Machingura died in that shoot-out.
Three of the four suspects — Ndiafhi Makhado (39), Andrew Masubelele (38) and Emmanuel Makamo (22) are South African nationals.
The other suspect, Paul Enerst Mazenge Zhou (55) is a Zimbabwean.
Yesterday, they appeared before Harare regional magistrate Taurai Manuwere.
The trial is now expected to start today.
Five months have passed since police busted the gang at its hideout and, in the process, shot and killed Machingura, who was living a double life as he was also a well-known music promoter in Zimdancehall circles.
Machingura was shot in the Morgan High School area following a high speed chase and a shoot-out with police.
He died on admission to Parirenyatwa Hospital.
Yesterday, his suspected accomplices appeared in court. However, the case was rolled over to today after the quartet’s lawyers indicated that they intend to make an application seeking further documents.
According to the State, the documents being sought include a request for a letter from a doctor certifying that Machingura was, indeed, dead.
They claimed that the State refused to cooperate with them and they now wanted the court to compel the district public prosecutor, Tafara Chirambira, to give them the documents they are looking for.
Chirambira, in response, said he didn’t have the particulars, which are being sought and, above all, they were irrelevant to his case.
“There was a request for post-mortem reports for Godknows Machingura and one Jabulani, those persons aren’t before this court,” said Chirambira.
“This trial, or what we intend to prove doesn’t involve the cause of those two individuals’ deaths because it’s common knowledge that they are dead.
“There’s also a request for a letter from a doctor certifying that they are dead as well as records reflecting when they were booked at a mortuary.
“I don’t know which mortuary and this has nothing to do with the charges of conspiracy to commit robbery and unlawful possession of a firearm.
“They are also requesting for tracker records of a Toyota Fortuner AFX 0554 on the date 19 December 2023.
“We have served the documents that we intend to use and as the State we don’t keep tracker records as, it’s done by private companies who hire out cars.
“We cannot be compelled to produce something we don’t have, we will allege that the accused persons had this car, it was recovered from them, the application they intend to make is to compel us to provide track records of where they were with their car.
“They also made a request for the call history with geographical locations of the arresting details, that is bizarre, to access call records of any citizen you need a court order
“This application is not founded at law.”
The gang was arrested after police were tipped off that they were planning to rob businessman Paul Chimbodza.
Police raided a guest house that they had booked and a shootout occurred.
Machingura and Jabulani Ngobeni were shot dead. Chimbodza was warned to appear in court today.