High Court grants Odzi farmer bail
The High Court in Harare yesterday granted bail to Odzi farmer, Philip Bezuidenhout. Bezuidenhout, 51, faces a charge of murder after he allegedly struck and killed Febian Mapenzauswa, 31, on 15 July with his vehicle. Mapenzauswa had just been resettled on Bezuidenhout’s Tara Farm in Odzi. Justice Michael Gillespie ordered the farmer to deposit $10 000 bail and provide the registrar of the High Court with surety of $50 000. He said Bezuidenhout, remanded on his initial appearance on 18 July at the Magistrates’ Courts in Mutare in custody to Wednesday, would, prior to his release on bail, advise the registrar and the investigating officer in writing of his new residential address. He would live there after his release until the end of his trial.
The State represented by Chengetai Gwatidzo, of the Attorney-General’s Office, had opposed bail, saying Bezuidenhout’s life was in danger since the situation at his farm was still tense with tempers still high. He said there was a fear that Bezuidenhout might abscond or interfere with State witnesses because of the seriousness of the charge. Gillespie directed the farmer to report at the Harare Central police station every Friday and not to interfere with witnesses whose names might appear on a list to be supplied by the investigating officer. Bezuidenhout, who was not in court, was represented by Advocate Richard Phillips of Advocates Chambers instructed by Chris Ndlovu of Gonese and Ndlovu. Phillips successfully argued that his client’s life was not in danger as he had safe alternative residential addresses.