By Judith Nyuke
A Harare magistrate has convicted a senior medical doctor and former Registrar of Medical and Dental Practioners Council of Zimbabwe, Dr. Collin Benyure of perjury after he deliberately misled the court by falsely claiming he had authority to testify on the council’s behalf.
Dr. Benyure (64) was found guilty of violating Section 183 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act [Chapter 9:23] which prohibits making false statements under oath during judicial proceedings and is scheduled to be sentenced today.
Dr. Benyure’s conviction arose from his false claim made while testifying as a defence witness in an earlier case, that he had been authorised by the council to speak on its behalf—a claim later disproven during his perjury trial when the State presented a council resolution confirming no such authority had been granted leading prosecutors to argue he knowingly misled the court under oath.
In its closing arguments, the State stressed that Dr. Benyure’s roles as registrar and spokesperson did not automatically grant him the authority to represent the council in court without a formal resolution.
In delivering his judgment on Thursday, Magistrate Donald Ndirowei ruled that the State had proven its case beyond reasonable doubt, stating that a statutory council as a juristic person, can only act through formally authorised representatives and that Dr. Benyure’s claim of inherent authority based on his position was legally indefensible.
The State proved that sometime in 2023, Dr. Andrew Mataruse reported a case of cyber bullying against Lenon Tonderai Gwaunza.
The matter was investigated at CID Commercial Crimes Division Northern Region and Gwaunza was arrested and taken to court.Gwaunza was tried at Harare Magistrate Court by Mr Zishiri.
On 22 May 2024, Benyure was called as a defence witness by Gwaunza.
It is during his testimony that Benyure lied under oath during Cross Examination by the state that he was representing the Medical and Dental Practioners Council of Zimbabwe, though there was no resolution to do so.
Matter was reported to the police and investigations were instituted.
During investigations, the police requested from the Medical and Dental Practioners Council of Zimbabwe the resolution for Benyure to represent the council.
The council, through their response to the police dated 06 February 2025 on paragraph 2 of the resolutions indicated that they did not specifically authorize Benyure being the Acting Registrar to be a defense witness in that specific case.
It was the State’s case that by so doing, Benyure lied under oath that it was councils’ resolution that he would appear as a defence witness.
