The High Court has today quashed the 18 months prison term imposed on Jazz star Dudu Manhenga who had been sentenced to serve the term after being found guilty of culpable homicide and driving with a learner’s licence without supervision. She will now pay a $1000 fine.
Dudu was found guilty of causing the death of motorcyclist Mr Graham Martin Millward. But through her lawyer Mr Isaiah Mureriwa of Scanlen and Holderness, she appealed against the sentence at the High Court.
The singer committed the offence on March 15, 2010, but was jailed on October 11 last year after pleading guilty to culpable homicide.
She was also fined $300 or three months in prison for driving without supervision.
The court heard that Manhenga only had a provisional driver’s licence when she crashed into Mr Millward along Sherwood Drive in Mabelreign, Harare.
Manhenga is said to have failed to give way to Millward as she turned right into the driveway of a residential property in her Toyota Spacio vehicle.
Millward suffered injuries and died on admission to West End Hospital.
It was Dudu’s argument that the magistrate erred in finding her to be grossly negligent without making a factual inquiry into the circumstances in which the accident occurred.
She also argued that the lower court incorrectly concluded that she was grossly negligent because she simply turned right onto the path occupied by the cyclist.
Dudu argued that the court should have found her to be ordinarily negligent thereby imposing a lighter sentence on her.
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