HARARE - Four men accused of conspiring to deliver toxic sodium cyanide to Harare’s Morton Jaffray Waterworks have been acquitted.

Farai Muchenje, Simon Demhe, Appronalise Mupakaviri and Tiki Tarwirei were freed by Harare regional magistrate Hosea Mujaya yesterday.

“There was a mix-up and it is not fit that the court finds you to have deliberately wanted to poison the water that people drink,” Mujaya said.

The State had accused the four, who work for delivery firms, of conniving to deliver sodium cyanide to the waterworks instead of water treatment chemical, aluminium sulphate.

Passing judgment, Mujaya said in relation to Tarwirei, the State did not find compelling evidence linking him to the crime. - Helen Kadirire