Fungai Lupande Court Reporter
With summer upon us, freezits or penny cooler lovers in Harare can safely drink the Mr Freeze brand after the court acquitted the company on allegations of manufacturing contaminated products.
Zurea Investments (Pvt) Ltd, manufacturers of Mr Freeze coolers and its general manager Altaf Ahmed, were facing charges of manufacturing freezits which had micro-organisms and foreign bodies that made them unfit for human consumption. They pleaded not guilty and Harare magistrate Ms Nomsa Sabarauta ruled that there was no evidence to prove essential elements of the offence.
“The samples of the freezits were not tendered to prove that it was indeed the accused’s product,” she said. “They could have been counterfeits. The State witnesses failed to link the product to the accused. The State evidence was that the freezits were purchased in Glen Norah from a wholesale called Spaceman. The State did not call evidence from the wholesale where the freezits were acquired.”
In their application for discharge through their lawyer Mr Prayer Mazhaka, the company and Mr Ahmed said the State failed to prove a prima facie case against them and all the witnesses were inconsistent and unreliable.
“The State failed to demonstrate that the product was identifiable as the accused’s product,” said their lawyer Mr Mazhaka. All the witnesses relied on the packaging of the freezits, which the accused deny. None of the witnesses bothered to produce exhibits of the freezits bought from the vendor. Neither were there any empty pockets or pictures to prove that the alleged contaminated freezits existed. None of the witnesses managed to demonstrate a link of acquisition of the freezits tracing and pointing it back to the accused.”
It was alleged that on November 3, last year Sinoten Chibarirwa bought two freezits from a vendor Ashwin Nyikayaramba at Mbudzi roundabout. The court heard that after drinking one of them he discovered it had a bitter taste and had foreign objects. The vendor tried to give him replacements, but they discovered that all of them had floating objects.
Mr Chibarirwa then took the freezits to Government Analyst Laboratory GAL, where they were confirmed unfit for human consumption.