One Sergeant Kuvarega, who arrested Foster in May last year on accusations of insulting Mugabe, did not turn up at the courts.Foster was arrested at a roadblock on charges of insulting the President after he accused traffic officers of fundraising for Mugabe’s government, which he said is broke.
It was the State’s case that Foster, who is the director of Foster Irrigation Scheme in Bulawayo, was allegedly driving a Toyota Fortuner along Victoria Falls road when he was stopped by police at a roadblock in Lupane.
He was charged for speeding and when asked to produce his driver’s licence, Forster allegedly told the police officers that they were trying to “raise money for the poor and broke Mugabe government.”
Foster was charged with violating a section of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for undermining the authority of or insulting the President. But his lawyers, Matshobana Ncube and Kucaca Phulu, argued that Foster did not insult the President because “Mugabe is not government and it is not a secret that the government is broke.”
It is an offence under Zimbabwe’s laws to undermine or insult the President and scores of people have been charged for insulting Mugabe in the past few years.
