Prisoner released from jail to settle debt with a prostitute

By Tichaona Sibanda

10 May 2006

A Tsholotsho farm-worker was recently released from custody after a magistrate and a prosecutor agreed that a prostitute’s spell made a rooster crow inside his chest at night.

Prosecutor Fritz Madida confirmed the bizarre case of 23 year-old Gift Moyo who applied for bail so that he could settle a debt with a hooker after he heard a rooster crow inside him. Moyo was in police custody facing theft charges. Madida told Newsreel on Wednesday from Tsholotsho; ‘Yes I can confirm that we had such a case here but I am not allowed to go into details without authority from the director of public prosecutions who is in Harare.

Last month magistrate Abednico Ndebele stunned the court when he said he would visit the man’s prison cell with Madida to verify the Moyo’s claims that there were ‘chicken noises’ in his chest.

According to our Bulawayo correspondent Themba Nkosi, the magistrate and prosecutor visited Moyo’s cell in April and allegedly heard the rooster crowing inside him for 10 minutes.

Its reported Moyo hurled himself to the floor when the rooster started crowing. He then rolled on the ground. Both court officials confirmed hearing the rooster crowing when they went to Moyo’s cell.

Nkosi said when Moyo appeared before Ndebele for a remand hearing, the magistrate told the man he would be released to ‘sort out your things’.

The strange case captivated the small district of Tsholotsho, 130 km north west of Bulawayo.

Themba Nkosi says Moyo’s troubles began when he spent some time in the border town of Beitbridge where he met a prostitute. They had sex and alleged refused to pay for the services on which the prostitute warned he could go but would ‘face the music’.

It is of great concern that members of the judiciary are so steeped in superstition to extent that it can influence their judgements. Zimbabwe Republic Police spokesman Wayne Budzijena said recently, "Witchcraft is not an area that lends itself to police scrutiny"How do you verify an evil spell? This is a matter of spiritual faith, not a matter of empirical evidence."