The case in which a Member of Parliament for Insiza North ,Siyabonga Malandu-Ncube is facing charges of deliberately infecting a female journalists working for a state owned newspaper took a new twist on Thursday as the MP pressed charges against the reporter saying she insulted him on Facebook last week.

Malandu-Ncube who belongs to the smaller faction of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) was arrested in June on charges of infecting with HIV a female journalist Simiso Mlevu, working for the Bulawayo based government owned B-Metro newspaper.

However on Thursday soon after Bulawayo High Court Judge Maphios Cheda dismissed Malandu-Ncube case the MP rushed to Bulawayo Central Police Station where he also made a report against Mlevu saying that she insulted him on Facebook social network last week.

Speaking to Radio VOP on Thursday evening after making a report to police Malandu-Ncube said Mlevu insulted him on Facebook saying he was a man of loose morals who goes around infecting women with HIV virus.

“I have pressed charges against Mlevu she insulted me on Facebook last week saying that, I am a man of lose morals who goes around bedding women and infecting them with HIV virus. Police said they will pick her anytime, “said Malandu Ncube. 

Meanwhile on Thursday morning Justice Cheda dismissed Malandu-Ncube's attempted prosecution for infecting Mlevu with HIV virus. Justice Cheda said “It is ordered that the ruling of the magistrate be and hereby set aside.”

Last month Bulawayo Magistrate Mark Dzira had ordered Malandu-Ncube to undergo an HIV test, but he immediately appealed to the High Court.

In that case Mlevu had pressed charges against the MP saying that  she had tested negative at the start of their relationship back in 2009 but later discovered that she had become infected after which she confronted her lover. She added that “the MP had refused to cooperate and instead insulted her insisting she was just angry because he had decided to end their relationship.”

It is a crime under Zimbabwe laws to deliberately infect someone with HIV virus. Malandu-Ncube was facing 20 years in jail if he had been convicted.

By Special correspondent