Snake appears in complainant court file

There was drama at the Civil Court offices of the Bulawayo magistrates' courts yesterday afternoon when a clerk bumped into a live snake in a file she wanted to pull out.Court clerks said a Plaintiff in the Small Claims Court walked into their offices just after lunch break and asked for her file.

A clerk went to the shelves to pull out the file and that is when she came face to face with a brown long and thin snake, which was inside the file she wanted to pull out.

The snake raised its head and the clerk threw away the file and shouted for help from her workmates who all bolted out of the office.They said the woman, who is a Plaintiff in the case, denied any connection with the snake while the Defendant in the case had not shown up.

As a result the case could not go in, as no one would dare move closer to the filing cabinets in fear of the reptile.The provincial magistrate in charge of Bulawayo and Matabeleland North provinces, Mr John Masimba, confirmed the incident and said they were contemplating calling in officers from the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority to come and deal with the reptile.

By late afternoon, after Mr Masimba had returned from an inspection in loco in an inquest case, the clerks said some male employees at the courts had tried to look for the snake but failed to locate it.

They said the male employees removed a handful of files but could not find the reptile and shelved the plans to hunt it down to today.

In September Afrik reported about a rise in freak snake stories and other weird happenings coming out of Zimbabwe in a report below :

One woman who Mashaire targeted got suspicious and reported the man to the police. The police then searched Mashaire only to find a live snake in his jacket.

Police say the man had intended to safely sneak the snake into the woman’s house and pretend to remove it in the cleansing ceremony and later demand “huge amounts” for the work done. But Mashaire told police that he intended to take it to his rural home where he was to burn it and use the ashes for ritual purposes.

Inheritance

The incident follows the discovery of a man at the oldest township in Harare, Mbare who was found with a snake in his bag. He claimed he inherited the snake from his late grandfather in 1985, suggesting that the venomous reptile would have been in his possesion for the last 24 years.

He was arrested and appeared in court facing charges of contravening the Parks and Wildlife Act and the snake was taken to Parks and Wildlife authorities.

Cobra travelling on a bus

And only a week ago in an incident that shocked travelers at Beitbridge Border Post, an approximately 1,5 metre long cobra sent a bus crew and passengers scurrying for cover after it was discovered inside a Gweru bound bus.

Zimbabwean Police with the help of their South African counterparts had to throw teargas into the bus which forced the snake out before it was killed. It is not known if the snake was intentionally carried into the bus.

Flying in a winnowing basket

In June Afrik reported on a self witch in Zimbabwe Regina Sveto 21 who claimed to have flown naked in a winnowing basket for 120km. The case attracted a lot of interest from the public who filled the courtroom to hear the proceedings and take a glimpse of the woman.

She was handed a wholly suspended one-year prison term by a magistrate. During sentencing, Sveto went into a trance again while in the dock. She regained her composure after guards rubbed salt on her face and hands.

The woman claimed she had “flown” from Murehwa, some 120km east of Harare, with her father-in-law and an aunt – both of whom she accuses of being witches. Their winnowing basket aircraft taxied off from a graveyard at their rural home with a sole aim to kill her brother-in-law.