Stocktheft offenders handed lengthy sentence

THERE was pandemonium at the Beitbridge Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday this week after six villagers were jailed 14 years each for stocktheft.

BY OWN CORRESPONDENT

The wives of Nyoronda Ndou, Foreman Mbedzi, Gozani Chauke, Barden Ndou, Norest Sibanda and Anonias Bunde openly registered their displeasure by grumbling in court soon after magistrate, Trevor Nyatsanza handed down the lengthy sentence.

Some could be heard wailing and denouncing the punishment as too harsh and unfair, while others blamed family feuds and evil spirits for leading to their husbands’ incarceration.

In handing down the sentence, Nyatsanza said stocktheft had become too prevalent and offenders seemed undeterred by harsh sentences passed by the courts.

The six had pleaded not guilty, but evidence against them was overwhelming.

The court heard that on October 25 last year, the complainant Brynos Sibanda saw the rustlers driving away his four cattle worth $2 000 from Matibi village in Beitbridge into Musina. Sibanda then enlisted the services of South African police officers, who escorted him to the site where the rustlers were later caught red-handed slaughtering the cattle inside a graveyard at Musina.

Tsika Mafunga prosecuted.