HARARE – A WITNESS has told a court that they saw MDC Alliance MP hopeful Luke Tamborinyoka defacing a rival’s poster.
Nyasha Murove said he called the police on Tamborinyoka, running for MP in Goromonzi West, after witnessing him plastering his sticky poster on top of that of rival, Taurai Nhamburo, who is also standing on an MDC Alliance ticket after going rogue and refusing a party directive to withdraw his nomination.
Murove, who identified himself as the district coordinator for the party in court, said he was positive the man he saw defacing a poster was Tamborinyoka.
“I worked with him at Harvest House for a long time and I know him very well. I saw him pasting his campaign poster on top of Nhamburo’s while I was seated in my car,” he testified before magistrate, Nyasha Vhotorini.
“I rushed to report at the police station so that the police could find him on spot.”
The trial had previously heard that four posters had been defaced, but it emerged yesterday that just two had been covered up – one by Tamborinyoka and a second by his co-accused, Tapiwa Murima.
Tamborinyoka and Murima deny offences under the Electoral Act.
Tamborinyoka, a former spokesperson for MDC Alliance leader Nelson Chamisa, told the trial that the charges were a fabrication by his rivals bent on soiling his name.
Nhamburo, he told the court, had been expelled from the party and a police complaint had been filed against him for forging the signature of a party official in order to submit his name to the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC).
At the time he was allegedly committing the offence, Tamborinyoka said he was nowhere near the place.
The crime continues, with Crispen Chikafu prosecuting.
Defacing or removing campaign posters invites a sentence of a fine or two years’ imprisonment, or both.
