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Former ZBC bureau chief granted longer remand
MISA-Zimbabwe
August 05, 2008

Mutare Provincial Magistrate Chipadze on 4 August 2008 refused to remove former Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (ZBC) bureau chief for Manicaland Andrew Neshamba from remand on charges of abuse of office as a public officer but allowed for a longer remand period to January 2009.

The magistrate granted the lengthy deferrement of the matter following an application by the defence to remove the accused person from remand pending the finalization of an appeal which is pending in the High Court. Chipadze concurred with the prosecution on the grounds that the matter had not been finalised to warrant removing Neshamba from remand.

Neshamba will therefore be back in court on 12 January 2009. Cris Ndlovu and MISA-Zimbabwe Legal Officer Wilbert Mandinde appeared for Neshamba while Nelson Makunyire appeared for the state.

On 2 June 2008 the defence made an application that Neshamba who faces charges of abuse of duty as a public officer in contravention of Section 174 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act was not a public officer as envisaged by the Act. The defence argued that under the Zimbabwe Broadcasting Corporation (Commercialisation) Act, Neshamba was working for a company duly incorporated in terms of the Companies Act.

The application was dismissed on 5 June 2008 and the defence applied to stop proceedings so that they could appeal to the High Court against the magistrate's decision which they argued was a gross misdirection on the part of the Magistrate Court.

Background
Allegations against Neshamba are that on 4 February 2007 he and William Gumbo facilitated the entry of Peter Moyo, an unaccredited South African based journalist with E-TV into Chiadzwa diamond mining fields in Manicaland.

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