Chinoz has court in stitches during trial

By Never Kadungure

Self-styled war veteran Joseph Chinotimba brought the Harare Magistrates Court down with laughter after expressing his ‘hurt’ at temporarily losing his US$40 Nokia 2310 cellphone.

During his evidence presentation on Wednesday in the trial of Deputy Youth Minister Thamsanqa Mahlangu, Chinotimba told Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini that he was “very pained by the loss” of his cell phone.

Mahlangu and his personal assistant Malvern Chadamoyo are jointly charged with the theft of the cellphone. The war veteran accused MDC people of being ‘hard hearted’ and amusing themselves with his phone. The two women caught with his sim-card ran up a bill of more than US$40.

The two Hwange ladies Geraldine Phiri and Patience Nyoni are also being charged for allegedly stealing the cellphone. 

In his evidence in chief Chinotimba, one of the State witnesses in the case told Harare Magistrate Kudakwashe Jarabini sucked in Nelson Chamisa, the MDC spokesperson and Minister of Information, Communication and Technology into the case. 

Chinotimba told the court that he informed Chamisa that members of his party whom he had been seated with on the same table at a conference held last month at the Rainbow Hotel had stolen his mobile phone handset, a Nokia 2310. 

Chinotimba, who put the value of the mobile handset and sim card at US$40 and US$10 respectively said Chamisa informed him that he had enquired and engaged Mahlangu about the stolen cell phone, who informed him that he had not taken Chinotimba’s cell phone.