GWERU – A Zimbabwean regional magistrate on Tuesday acquitted a top official of Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai’s MDC party of rape charges, bringing to six the number of MDC parliamentarians who have been freed by the courts since the setting up of the inclusive government last February.

Magistrate William Bhila acquitted on a technicality Kwekwe Central legislator Blessing Chebundo who was facing charges of raping a 13-year-old girl.

The magistrate cited contradictory evidence that was presented by the minor who in her testimony before the court said she was raped whilst facing the ground but had stated in an earlier submission to court that she was raped whilst facing upwards. The girl said she fell pregnant as a result of the rape.

"I am definitely elated that the judicial process is still being professional despite the challenges we are facing a as country," Chebundo, a member of the MDC’s highest decision-making body – the national executive council –said after the ruling.

"This was the most trying time in my life time."

Chebundo was arrested in May in Kwekwe for allegedly raping the girl he had given a lift in his vehicle from Harare. Police said some time in January Chebundo allegedly raped the girl after they had passed Sebakwe River towards Kadoma, as they were travelling to Kwekwe in the MP’s car.

The MDC accuses hardliners within President Robert Mugabe's ZANU PF party of using the police and army to crack down on its MPs in a bid to reduce their numbers in Parliament.

Last week a Harare magistrate acquitted another MDC top official and a deputy youth minister in the unity government Thamsanga Mahlangu who was accused of stealing a cellphone handset and a sim card belonging to ZANU PF member and war veterans leader Joseph Chinotimba.

The MDC more than three weeks ago stopped attending Cabinet, angered by the detention of its treasurer and nominee for deputy agriculture minister Roy Bennett, who is accused of possessing weapons of war for purposes of committing terrorism. 

Tsvangirai’s party which has since called off the boycott says “politically motivated prosecution” of its members is further sign of Mugabe’s refusal to abide by the global political agreement (GPA), the power-sharing agreement signed by Zimbabwe’s political leaders last year at the behest of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The GPA is the foundation of the Harare coalition government. – ZimOnline