Source: State tenders more evidence in CCC abduction case | The Herald
Senior Court Reporter
More recordings from security cameras in shops at Harare’s Belgravia shopping centre were entered into the court record yesterday in the trial of CCC members Joana Mamombe and Cecelia Chimbiri as part of the prosecution process of proving the pair were seen at the shopping centre late in the same day they claimed they were abducted in May 2020.
Mamombe and Chimbiri are charged with communicating falsehoods prejudicial to the State after they allegedly faked their abductions at the hands of the police. Mr Michael Reza, prosecuting, tendered in to the court record the network video recorder from the Bon Marche supermarket at the shopping centre through State witness Mr Takudzwa Shumbayaonda, a technical manager at Radio Solutions.
Radio Solutions was contracted to install the recorder at Bon Marche and Mr Shumbayaonda was part of the team that connected the system in 2019.
Mr Shumbayaonda told the court that it was not possible for anyone to tamper with the footage from the NVR hard drive once it was recorded. “You can never add images or footage on NVR.”
Mr Shumbayaonda told the court that the Bon Marche NVR had 24 cameras inserted on it during the time they installed it and they remained sole custodians of the passwords to the hard drive. Bon Marche staff only had operational passwords.
“You cannot tamper with the images and the only way is to wipe it out. We gave them (Bon Marche) operational passwords and not configuration and hard drive passwords,” he said.
Another State witness, Mr Fortunate Machingauta an ICT expert from Simbisa Brands, which runs the fast food outlet Chicken Inn at the shopping centre, also testified yesterday. He testified on his participation in the installation of the CCTV cameras at Chicken Inn and also emphasised that the footage on a NRV cannot be tampered with.
The trial continues today.
Meanwhile, two other CCC legislators Job Sikhala and Godfrey Sithole, are today expected to mount a fresh bail bid based on changed circumstances.
Sikhala and Sithole are charged with obstructing or defeating the course of justice after they allegedly mobilised their supporters to cause violence in Nyatsime in revenge of the death of Moreblessing Ali, murdered by a former boyfriend, with the two legislators saying she was a CCC supporter.
The two, through their lawyers Ms Beatrice Mtetwa and Mr Jeremiah Bamu, filed their written bail application and today they are expected to make additional oral submissions.
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