Story by Peter Chivhima, Courts Reporter
Citizens Coalition for Change spokesperson Fadzai Mahere has been convicted after she was found guilty of communicating falsehoods.
Mahere was convicted in a case in which she tweeted that the Zimbabwe Republic Police had killed an infant using a baton stick in 2020.
In her initial trial, Mahere, through her legal team, tried to exonerate herself by submitting that her tweet came after she saw a video of a motionless child with the crowd shouting that the police had killed an infant.
However, in his judgement, Harare regional magistrate Mr Taurai Manuwere dismissed Mahere’s claims as reckless and unreasonable.
Mr Manuwere also submitted that Mahere as an Advocate with many years of experience in the legal fraternity was supposed to verify facts before communicating on Twitter.
The court also ruled that Mahere’s utterances that violence is in the DNA of the ZRP soiled and undermined its good name, thereby portraying the police force as full of rogue police officers.
