By Cathy Maulidi:
The State Friday completed parading witnesses in the murder case in which it is accusing Lester Maganga of murdering Allan Witika.
The State Friday finished by parading Sergeant Clement Dinyelo who is a detective working with the Lingadzi Police.
Dinyelo told the court that the police are considering Maganga as an accomplice saying they believe he sent someone to murder Witika using his gun which they believe he later disposed off.
“During his arrest, investigators found him with a gun which is a dummy and which he has a licence for. But he was also found with a live bullet which he had no licence for,” Dinyelo said.
According to Dinyelo, a bullet is not sold in isolation. Rather, it is sold in a box of 50 bullets and the investigators concluded that Maganga could have purchased the box of the bullets and used the rest for him to have been left with one.
“There should be a gun somewhere that was used using the bullets,” he said.
Dinyelo indicated that at the moment, investigations are still ongoing to establish who exactly killed Witika.
But defence lawyer, Gonjetso Dikiya, has said the state’s case is based on circumstantial evidence and does not link Maganga to the murder.
“There is no direct evidence. Whatever he said in the court is what they think and not what happened. I still maintain that the killer is out there. The State had too many leads but chose to ignore them.
“What they have is circumstantial evidence and not direct evidence towards our client. We asked about the status of the investigations, they did not give a proper answer meaning they stopped everything after arresting Maganga. Poor investigations if you ask me,” Dikiya said.
On his part, Senior State Advocate Pirirani Masanjala said the State has presented its case and it is up to the judge to rule on it.
“We charged Maganga with two counts of being found in possession of a live bullet without licence and murder. So the defence can say what they can say but to us, it is now the duty of the court to determine whether he has a case to answer or not,” he said.
High Court Judge Mzonde Mvula has given the state 14 days to file its submissions and the same days for the State to reply.
After final submissions, the judge will rule on whether Maganga has a case to answer or not.
The judge also did not rule on the bail application filed by the defence team saying he will do that at a date he did not specify.
The matter has since been adjourned to November 25 this year.
Witika was killed in September last year and Maganga was arrested in October the same year.
Investigators believe Maganga had a motive to kill Witika as he was dating a woman who had ended a relationship with the accused.
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