NYAZURA – Two men from Burma Valley were given a 10-year sentence after they were convicted of stealing 292kg of copper cable with a value of $5 840 00.
David Ngungwa and Lovemore Sithole were charged with contravening section 60 A as read with section 4 of Electricity Amendment Act 13:19. They appeared before magistrate Langton Mukwengi.
The court was told that the two went on a rampage disconnecting and stealing power cables in Mutare and around Nyazura which they then smuggled into Mozambique. Sithole was arrested on February 27 after he vandalised and stole power cables at Lee Farm in Nyazura.
He was nabbed after police received a tip-off from members of the public who saw him carrying the cables. Sithole implicated Ngungwa who was later arrested on March 1 by police in Nyazura.
The two pleaded not guilty but were convicted due to overwhelming evidence. They were not represented. In passing the sentence, Mukwengi said vandalism was a serious offence and imposing a fine would trivialise the case. – Court Reporter
BF soldier charged
KWEKWE – A 33-year-old soldier based at Battlefields military base in Kwekwe has been charged for severely assaulting his wife who caught him with another woman.
Tamuka Kandira was formally charged with physical abuse as defined by a section of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act for his attack on Mesline Mpiwa (31).
Presenting State facts before Magistrate Rutendo Muchena, Prosecutor Bornwell Balamanje said on January 28, Mpiwa arrived at their matrimonial home. She found Kandira sleeping with an unidentified woman. When she asked her husband to explain the situation, Kandira became abusive.
The court heard that he insulted his wife and went on to assault her until she was unconscious. The mother-in-law, who was in the same house, came to her rescue and later reported the matter to police.
Kandira is denying the charge. Trial of the matter has been postponed to next week and the state successfully opposed bail for the soldier. – Brenna Matendere
MDC-T MP challenges conviction
GWERU -
Mkoba MP and MDC-T national secretary for water, Amos Chibaya, has indicated that he will challenge his conviction on malicious damage to property made by a local magistrate last week.
Magistrate Mildred Mutuvi on Friday acquitted the MP who was jointly charged with party youth treasurer, Livingstone Chiminya, with public violence but instead convicted the two of malicious damage to property.
The two were alleged to have damaged property at a bar in Guinea Fowl during clashes with rowdy Zanu (PF) youths in October. Chibaya and Chiminya had stopped at the bar on their way home from a party rally in Mberengwa.
However, in passing judgement, Mutuvi said the state witnesses were contradicting one another on how the legislator and youth activist could have engaged in public violence.
However, she said the state witnesses were consistent in pointing to the damage of property and instead preferred charges of malicious damage to property against the two.
Chibaya and Chiminya were asked to pay fines of $150 each.
In an interview, Chibaya’s lawyer Reginald Chidawanyika said the magistrate had made a mistake. – Brenna Matendere
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