NIGHTCLUB manager, Ronald Ngwenya, took to the witness stand on Friday and denied raping his 13-yerar-old niece, claiming that the allegations were concocted by the girl’s father.
Ngwenya told the court that he and the girl’s father were married to biological sisters.
“Prior to these allegations, precisely a week before, I had an altercation with the complainant’s father over the welfare of his other children.
“During the argument, he told me that I couldn’t tell him what to do with his children and our relationship became acrimonious.
“On the day in question, I went to work and returned home quite late, but I never entered the child’s bedroom as my wife was still awake waiting for me.
“I woke up the next morning and went to the gym and my wife called me and told me that the complainant said she had been raped during the night.
“I told her to inform the child’s father and to file a police report,” he said.
The matter took another dramatic twist when Ngwenya’s lawyer started referring to the previous record in which magistrate Clever Tsikwa recused himself as he was leading Ngwenya.
“Confirm at some point the complainant testified against you under oath?” asked the lawyer.
“Yes, she testified against me previously before the trial restarted before this court and I’m noting significant differences in her testimonies,” said Ngwenya in response.
Ngwenya then applied to tender the previous record of proceedings.
Prosecutor Zvikomborero Mupasa opposed the application arguing that the record was irrelevant to these proceedings and would bring bias to the court.
“The State is opposed to that application because the record is irrelevant in this trial and producing it would colour the court’s mind.
“We had no problems when they cross-examined the complainant using the record, but tendering the whole record would result in a gross misconduct of justice,” he said.
Magistrate Fadzai Mthombeni is set to make a determination on the issue of the record on June 28, but today, both counsels are expected to file supplementary submissions on the application.
