{"id":15122,"date":"2019-10-23T21:25:12","date_gmt":"2019-10-23T19:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.com\/zimbabwe\/?p=15122"},"modified":"2019-10-23T21:25:12","modified_gmt":"2019-10-23T19:25:12","slug":"mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.cc\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted","title":{"rendered":"MDC Bulawayo activist acquitted"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A Bulawayo magistrate Tuesday acquitted MDC activist, Josphat \u201cMzaca\u201d Ngulube (34) who had been arrested and charged with contravening the Public Order and Security Act (POSA).<\/p>\n<p>Ngulube, who contested last year\u2019s parliamentary elections as an independent candidate in Bulawayo South Constituency before joining the MDC early this year, was facing charges of convening a meeting without notifying relevant authorities.<\/p>\n<p>He was being charged alongside two other persons and were out on $100 bail each.<\/p>\n<p>Bulawayo magistrate, Lizwe Jamela acquitted Ngulube and his co-accused at the close of the State\u2019s case after noting that the prosecution failed to prove its case beyond any reasonable doubt.<\/p>\n<p>In acquitting Ngulube, the magistrate said the evidence led by the State falls short of the threshold of establishing a prima facie case.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe evidence does not prove the essential elements of the alleged offence and is manifestly unreliable that no reasonable court acting upon it will convict the accused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPutting the accused person on their defence under the circumstances will not be proper as it will amount to a fishing expedition meant to bolster the State\u2019s case,\u201d Jamela said before acquitting Ngulube.<\/p>\n<p>Prosecutor <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/kevinweddingplanner\/?hl=en\">Tendai Zhou<\/a> said on July 13 this year, Ngulube submitted a notice of public demonstration due on July 17 to the police.<\/p>\n<p>Zhou alleged that the regulatory authority for Bulawayo Central District noted that Ngulube had not given a seven day notice as required by the law and advised him to that effect.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn July 15, Ngulube was invited to the regulating officer\u2019s office for consultations and amendment of his notice to meet the dictates of the law but he refused.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOn July 12 at around 12pm near Pick \u2018n Pay Hyper, Ngulube went ahead and convened a public demonstration where about 30 people had gathered. Alert police officers observed the accused whilst addressing the gathering and was arrested.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, Ngulube will be back in court on November 11 before Magistrate Tinashe Tashaya for judgement in a public violence case dating back to the January protests.<\/p>\n<p>Ngulube allegedly burnt three cars, destroyed a precast wall and broke several windows of a house belonging to <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/ZANU%E2%80%93PF\">Zanu PF<\/a> Bulawayo provincial women\u2019s league chairperson Eva Bitu.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A Bulawayo magistrate Tuesday acquitted MDC activist, Josphat \u201cMzaca\u201d Ngulube (34) who had been arrested and charged with contravening the Public Order and Security Act (POSA). Ngulube, who contested last year\u2019s parliamentary elections as an independent candidate in Bulawayo South Constituency before joining the MDC early this year, was facing charges of convening a meeting [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":15124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[88,120,557],"class_list":{"0":"post-15122","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-all-news","8":"category-parties","9":"tag-mdc","10":"tag-parties","11":"tag-posa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.1 (Yoast SEO v24.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>MDC Bulawayo activist acquitted - zimbabwe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A Bulawayo magistrate Tuesday acquitted MDC activist, Josphat \u201cMzaca\u201d Ngulube (34) who had been arrested and charged with contravening\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"MDC Bulawayo activist acquitted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A Bulawayo magistrate Tuesday acquitted MDC activist, Josphat \u201cMzaca\u201d Ngulube (34) who had been arrested and charged with contravening\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"zimbabwe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-10-23T19:25:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/2019\/10\/Court-Byo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"559\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/zimbabwe\/all-news\/mdc-bulawayo-activist-acquitted\",\"name\":\"MDC Bulawayo activist acquitted - 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