Mujuru’s maid arrested, beaten and jailed

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Mutepfa’s case was heard in camera before provincial magistrate Priscilla Chigumba at Rotten Row Magistrates Court last week on Saturday. Chigumba sentenced her to 12 months with hard labour with three months being suspended on condition of good behaviour following her own admission of guilty, although there are reports that she was tortured to obtain a confession.
Mutepfa’s lawyer Tinashe Chibwana of Antonio Associates on Monday filed an appeal in the High Court and simultaneously made an application for bail pending appeal to the Rotten Row Magistrates Court on the grounds that the court could have misdirected itself in passing custodial sentence. Chibwana asserted that Mutepfa was a fist offender and the court could have considered community service instead of a custodial sentence.
“The sentence passed in the circumstances is so excessive as to induce a sense of shock,” Chibwana said in his court papers. He said 190 hours community service with a wholly suspended sentence would suffice.
On the Saturday of September 23, Mutepfa appeared in court wearing an arm sling having sustained a broken arm and with deep soft tissue bruising all over her body, the result of a gruelling interrogation by her investigating officer, one CID woman officer Zaranyika.
The State alleged that Mutepfa stole two bed sheets valued at $32,000 before going on her annual leave in August. She was arrested on September 21, as she returned to Mujuru’s house to resume her duties. She was taken to Harare Central Police Station where she was subjected to severe physical attack.
Mutepfa’s distraught mother, who is a Methodist preacher’s wife, said police refused to grant her access to her daughter but advised her to bring new clothes before she appeared in court.
“When I went back on Friday to give my daughter some clothes I could not believe what I saw,” she told The Zimbabwean. “Stains of blood were every where on Dorothy and she could not walk properly.”
Mutepfa is currently serving her term at Chikurubi Maximum Prison. Her appeal had not yet been heard at the time of to print.