By Staff Reporter
A BEITBRIDGE couple has been remanded in custody after it was arrested this week for allegedly broadcasting via a WhatsApp group that President Emmerson Mnangagwa had succumbed to Covid19.
Devine Panashe Maregere (20) and his wife Vongai Chiminya (20) are accused of falsely claiming Mnangagwa died on January 25 due to Covid-19 related complications.
They appeared before Beitbridge resident magistrate Toindepi Zhou charged with contravening provisions of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 by publishing or communicating false statement prejudicial to the State.
Zhou remanded them in custody to March 5.
Appearing for the state, Tsitsi Mutukwa said on January 26, the couple was at their home in Dulivhadzimu suburb when Chiminya received an audio message via a WhatsApp group ‘Ruwadzano Rwemadzimai’ which she is a member of.
Joyce Muchenje,centre, poses for a photo with her three children, who all have albinism, outside their family home in Chitungwiza on the outskirts of Harare, in this Tuesday, June, 9, 2020. Muchenje used to provide for them by washing laundry and household cleaning for cross border traders at a busy border town before the lockdown, but now the border trade has stopped and Mutenje has run out of money to get the skin cream for her children. (AP Photo/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi)
A Beitbridge couple has been arrested for allegedly broadcasting via a WhatsApp group that President Mnangagwa had succumbed to Covid19.