HARARE – Music promoter Tinashe Chanachimwe and dancehall producers Arnold Kamudyariwa and Tafadzwa Kadzimwe were sentenced to a minimum six months’ imprisonment on Wednesday, a day after they pleaded guilty to breaching Covid-19 regulations.
Chanachimwe, a popular drug dealer in Mbare who is also known as Dammer, organised a New Year’s Eve party in partnership with Kamudyariwa, aka DJ Fantan and the Chillspot Records co-founder Kadzimwe, popularly known as Levels.
Harare magistrate Vongai Muchuchuti on Wednesday jailed the three men for 12 months, but conditionally suspended half the sentence.
Muchuchuti said the trio’s plea of guilt “was a sign of remorse, but they did not take heed of the current lockdown curfew which ran from 10PM to 6AM when they made the flier” inviting residents of Mbare and surrounding areas to a party from 6PM to 6AM.
“By making the flier, they should have foreseen that the public would come in numbers, taking into cognisance the area they intended to host the event” – an open space between populous Mbare’s Matapi flats, she ruled.
The magistrate said the trio risked the lives of innocent individuals.
“What you did was very serious, a fine and community service would trivialise the offence,” Muchuchuti said before sentencing.
A lawyer for the three men had argued that others who attended the event and were arrested had gotten away with fines, and the punishment should be uniform. Muchuchuti said as organisers, Chanachimwe, Kamudyariwa and Kadzimwe had higher culpability.
