I felt threatened — Sibanda

By Tendai Madhomu

The MDC-T Member of Parliament for Bulawayo Central, Dorcas Sibanda, on Friday said she felt threatened and feared to be harmed after she read allegedly grossly offensive chats posted by a youth member of the party and directed towards her on the party WhatsApp chat group.

Sibanda was the first state witness to testify in the matter involving an MDC-T youth member, Donald Mabutho (31), who is accused of insulting her via the WhatsApp platform.

The messages, which were written in vernacular and contained unprintable words, accused Sibanda of pursuing a destructive agenda within the MDC-T.

Mabutho, who appeared before magistrate Gladmore Mushove at the Tredgold Courts, was accused of contravening Section 88 (a) of the Telecommunications Services Act which prohibits “sending any message that is grossly offensive or of an indecent, obscene or threatening character”.

An application to be exonerated from the crime that he made through his lawyer, Kholwani Ngwenya of Mabhikwa and Partners, was dismissed after Mushove ruled that the charges preferred against him were consistent with the alleged offence.

On Friday, Sibanda recited the messages that were sent by Mabutho on the chat group and directed towards her on November 14 2014 at around 2100hrs.

“We will fix you Zipankie, you are a dog. MDC-T does not belong to her mother, she must take note of that. You hire thugs to come and cause commotion…those are typical Zanu symptoms, you punk! Today, the chairman’s car parked inside your plot has been discovered (sic),” read part of the chats.

Sibanda told the court that she felt threatened by the messages and feared she was likely to be harmed.

The matter was remanded to January 27 for continuation of trial. The Zimbabwe Mail