By 
Movement for Democratic Change (MDC A) National Youth Chairperson Obey Sithole’s temporary passport release was on Wednesday dismissed by Magistrate Ngoni Nduna.
Sithole was arrested in June for participating in a demonstration in Warren Park against hunger together with other MDC A members in May this year.
He was however granted bail with conditions and amongst them he had to surrender his passport, it was surrendered to state in July.
Obey Shava who is Sithole’s legal representative cited that his client Obey Sithole needed to attend a conference in South Africa.
He said that they were pleading with the court to avail Sithole’s passport from the eighth of November 2020 and it would be returned to the Clerk on the 16th of November 2020.
Shava further told the court that the release of Sithole’s passport would not jeopardize the interests of justice.
Magistrate Nduna dismissed the application before even considering it’s merits.
He noted in his ruling that the application should have been placed before the magistrate who granted Sithole bail in the first place.
He stated that he would only deal with the application if that magistrate was unavailable.
In declining to deal with the merits of the case, he mentioned that he could not properly identify the signature of the magistrate who granted Sithole bail.
Sithole’s matter was postponed to 17 November 2020 for trial.
Comments