Tout jailed for stealing beast

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A TOUT for a commuter omnibus plying the Binga Centre-Siabuwa route has been slapped with an effective nine-year jail term for stealing a neighbour’s cow.

A TOUT for a commuter omnibus plying the Binga Centre-Siabuwa route has been slapped with an effective nine-year jail term for stealing a neighbour’s cow. SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER

Njabulo Sibanda (34) of Siadindi Lusulu in Binga appeared before Binga resident magistrate Stephen Ndlovu facing a stocktheft charge.

Sibanda denied the charge, but Ndlovu convicted and sentenced him to nine years in jail after a full trial.

In denying the charge, Sibanda told the court that on the day he was alleged to have stolen the beast, he was in Gokwe.

He said it was a case of mistaken identity or those implicating him were simply lying.

Sikalala village head Jameson Ndlovu told the court that he personally knew Sibanda and would not have lied that he intercepted him driving the beast, if he was not the one.

Ndlovu said he even knew Sibanda’s parents and was aware that he did not own any cattle and that was why he intercepted him and asked him to produce a police clearance for the beast he had.

Another witness Mxolisi Ndlovu told the court that on October 13 2013, Sibanda came to his home and asked the elders to allow one of the boys to assist him drive cattle from Sikalala to Dobola promising to pay him $100.

He said he went with Sibanda to the village head’s homestead, but the village head refused to release the cow demanding a police clearance letter first.

Mxolisi said he spent three days with Sibanda trying to look for a police clearance letter without success.

Sibanda then called his uncle Naison Mugande to testify in his defence. However, Mugande told the court that he only saw Sibanda at a church service in Chibila on the days in question and so did not know when he had gone to Gokwe.

His second uncle who stays in Gokwe where he claimed to have been, said Sibanda only came to Gokwe when talk had already spread that he had stolen a cow. But Sibanda insisted that he was in Gokwe from October 13 to November 4.