Shongedza's appeal against sentence was dismissed at the beginning of March.
24 January: Harari Magistrate's Court JAMES KASIMU (48), a gardener at Camarie Farm, Norton, was convicted for falsely denying any knowledge of guerillas who killed Mrs Sheila Cumming and her daughter Sarah at the farm on 7 January. He pleaded guilty to making a false statement to police officers by claiming that he was not present when the shooting occurred. Sentence was passed on 3 February, when Kasimu was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.
31 January: High Court, Salisbury An unnamed 17-year-old youth, who had been captured by security forces after spending three weeks with a guerilla group, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment for possessing arms of war - an offence carrying a mandatory death penalty. In mitigation the court was asked to take into account the fact that no member of the security forces had been killed or injured while the accused, who was under the age of 17 at the time of the offence, had had a leg amputated due to wounds received at capture. Before passing sentence, Mr Justice Pittman said that it was in the public interest that captured guerillas should be induced to co-operate with the authorities - as the accused had in fact done - and that such inducement should be reflected in the sentence.
FURTHER CASES 1 February: High Court, Salisbury The trial of two youths who had allegedly received guerilla training in the Mrewa district between June and August 1977, was adjourned to 20 March after defence counsel had withdrawn from the case. The youths, said to be aged about 14 and 15 respectively, denied taking part in the ambush of some Roads Department vehicles being escorted by security forces from Mrewa to the Pfungwe TTL, in which a member of the security forces had been killed. Following their arrest, the youths alleged that they had been beaten up and forced to make confessions. Both described how the consolidated village in which they had been living had been burned down by guerillas, who had then escorted local people back to their original homes. A police inspector, giving evidence on the state of affairs in the youths' home area, said that is was "subverted", and that local people were sympathetic towards the guerillas.
13/14 February: High Court, Salisbury MUNJODZI MUZAYA (23), of Selukwe TTL, pleaded not guilty to recruiting or encouraging 5 youths to go to Mozambique for guerilla training. A number of state witnesses alleged that they had been approached by Muzaya at a beerdrink. Four recruits had been arrested at a police roadblock while travelling on a bus with Muzaya.
6 March: Salisbury Magistrate's Court Two men, AUGUSTINE NYERENYERE (26) and his cousin AGGREY NYERENYERE (23), appeared in court on charges of planting six bombs in Salisbury on 4 March, the day after the signing of the internal settlement agreement. Five of the bombs, planted in mail boxes and refuse bins at local supermarkets, exploded, but caused no casualties. The sixth was detonated by an army bomb disposal unit. The two men, both from the Mtoko area, near the Mozambique border, commuted regularly to Salisbury to sell vegetables. They were arrested at a police roadblock as they left the city a few hours after the explosions, and appeared in court barefoot and manacled. They were remanded in custody until 20 March.
28 March: Salisbury Regional Court Three officials of the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace in Rhodesia, charged with contravening the Official Secrets Act, have been further remanded until 1 May. Father DIETER SCHOLZ, executive member, JOHN DEARY, chairman, and Brother AUTHOR DU PUIS, organising secretary, appeared in court for the fifth time on 28 March.
APPEALS MISHEK CHIBANDA, a 70-year-old kraalhead from the Mtoko district, had a 5 year prison sentence (3 years suspended), imposed for failing to report guerillas, completely suspended on appeal in January. LOIS TSIMBA and MILLION MUSODZA, who had been jointly charged with Chibanda, had their effective prison terms reduced from 3 to 2 years.
An appeal against conviction and sentence by two officials of the United African National Council in Gatooma was dismissed in Salisbury on 26 January. DANIEL GWAZE (20), the district vice-chairman, and TAKURASAYI JONATHAN MUKARAKATE (25), the district vice-organising secretary, has each been sentenced to 12 years imprisonment for harbouring and assisting a guerilla, and failing to report his presence. The guerilla concerned, Ignatius Duma, had arrived in Gatooma in October 1976 after deserting from his group in the Mount Darwin area on the grounds that while he was a UANC supporter, all his colleagues supported Robert Mugabe.
SIMON CHITOPO, headmaster of Holy Trinity School, Sabi North TTL, had a prison term of 4 years (2 suspended) reduced to 2 years (one suspended) on 3 February. He had been convicted by a magistrate's court of failing to report guerillas who had visited his school in November 1976.
