THE High Court has granted a notorious 14-year-old Zvishavane thief bail after spending two weeks in remand prison for allegedly stealing a car.
ALLIEWAY NYONI OWN CORRESPONDENT
The juvenile was represented by lawyer Privilege Mhlanga whose application for bail was upheld by the High Court.
However, Zvishavane magistrate Peter Madiba was discontented with the High Court decision as the boy had previous cases.
“He is a menace to society . . . he recently graduated from house breaking and is now stealing cars. It should be noted that this young boy has 14 previous cases of unlawful entry and theft that we sentenced him to receive six strokes, but he did not reform. And before that, he had several other cases of theft that had a different sentence,” Madiba said.
But Mhlanga said the boy deserved to be bailed out since the car theft charge was still an allegation and he had not been found guilty of the offence.
“Your worship, the boy is alleged to have stolen the vehicle and there is no evidence yet presented before the court to prove that he is guilty of the offence,” Mhlanga said.
Madiba agreed that the boy be granted bail, but warned that the boy is likely to commit a more serious offence soon after being granted bail.
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“This time I tell you he is going to commit a more serious offence like attempted murder or rape as it is his habit of committing a more serious offence after being released from prison,” Madiba said.
The boy’s mother swore before the court that she would strictly monitor the boy’s moves after being released.
“I will make sure he will be with me always,” she said.
It is the State’s case that the juvenile with his older accomplice Nyasha Rundava (23) on July 2 at around 6am stole Andrew Tarupiwa’s car that was parked in his garage at Hillview suburb when he accidentally left the key in the ignition while he rushed to work.
Rundava and the boys trespassed into Tarupiwa’s yard and stole his car.
They allegedly went on a joy ride in the mining town before abandoning the car in a ditch. When Tarupiwa discovered that his car had been stolen, he made a report at the Zvishavane Police Station.
The cops found the vehicle two days later in the ditch close to Mandava High School.
A Samsung digital camera with pictures of Rundava and the juvenile enjoying a joy ride in the car as well as the latter’s cream jacket were discovered inside the vehicle.
The juvenile’s mother confirmed that the jacket belonged to her son.
The boy implicated Rundava alleging that he had forced him to drive the stolen vehicle.
