The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Weekender Correspondent
THE old adage that no one is above the law was proved last week after a member of the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPCS) was barred from driving all classes of vehicles.
The prison officer was convicted by a Mutare court for negligently causing a road accident in the city’s Central Business District.
Norman Mapisa (24), who is stationed at Ntabazinduna Prison in Bulawayo ,was convicted on his own guilty plea when he appeared before Ms Perseverance Makala last Wednesday.
Mapisa was barred from driving all classes of motor vehicles for the next six months.
He was also ordered to pay $300 fine or risk 40 days’ imprisonment. The fine is supposed to have been paid by September 30, 2017.
Mapisa contravened Section 6 (1) (a) as read with Section 6 (b) and Section 52 (2) of the Road Traffic Act, Chapter 13, 11, otherwise known as driving without a driver’s licence and negligent driving respectively.
Mr Brighton Shamuyarira prosecuted.
The State heard that at around 2pm on September 4, Mapisa was driving a Toyota Porte, registration number AED3208 without a valid Zimbabwean driver’s licence when he caused the road accident at Megawatt House.
“Mapisa was driving due north along First Street. When he arrived at the interception of Robert Mugabe Road and First Street, he failed to give right of way to the second party who was driving a Mercedes-Benz C180 which was driving due west along Robert Mugabe Road,” said Mr Shamuyarira.
As a result, Mapisa hit the complainant’s vehicle on the left door and it swerved and hit the Jairos Jiri Building along the Harare-Mutare Road. The Mercedes-Benz sustained extensive frontal damages as a result of the accident. Mapisa was not injured, but the complainant sustained a swollen mouth and chest pains. He was treated and discharged at Mutare Provincial Hospital.
Mr Shamuyarira told the court that in acting in the manner that he did, Mapisa negligently failed to give right of way to an oncoming vehicle and was recklessly and without due care travelling at an excessive speed, thereby causing the road accident.
