TWO convicts serving a 10-year jail term at Gwanda Prison yesterday appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Charity Maphosa facing charges of killing a miner at Valentine Mine in Gwanda.
BY SILAS NKALA
Fortunate Ncube (39) of Gwakwe village under Chief Mathema in Gwanda and Elijah Gordon (29) of Sigodo village had appeared before the court pending their transfer to the High Court for trial.
The Zimbabwe Prison and Correctional Services (ZPCS) in Gwanda last year sought their transfer from Gwanda to Khami Prison fearing that they would escape.
The two were not asked to plead to the charge and were remanded to August 27.
In a letter dated June 5 2014, the Gwanda Prison officer-in-charge only identified as M Ngwenya requested Matabeleland South provincial magistrate Rueben Mukavhi to transfer the two prisoners pending their appearance at the Bulawayo High Court because they posed a high security risk.
“The two prisoners are serving 10 years each while trials on murder are pending,”Ngwenya wrote.
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“With these long sentences, we feel the prisoners might escape. They need to be at Khami Maximum Prison as they wait for commencement of their trial at the Bulawayo High Court. The two will be brought back for restitution purposes on December 31 2014,”
Mukavhi was said to have cleared the transfer and written a letter to the Matabeleland North provincial magistrate at Bulawayo Tredgold Courts, Elias Mangate, indicating that the two must be transferred as per the ZPCS request.
They await trial for murder, which they allegedly committed together with Darlington Ndlovu (33) of Jahunda Gwanda, Mkhokheli Ncube (25) of Gwakwe, Christopher Sibanda (39) and Nqobizitha Phiri (39) of Sigodo, Absalom Sibanda (34) of Ultra-High in Gwanda and Qiniselani Ngwenya (29) of Lushongwe village in Gwanda.
Charges levelled against them on the murder case were that they went to Valentine Mine at Blanket Farm in Gwanda on May 28 2013, where they connived and confronted the now-deceased Isaac Gweta and his friend who were panning at that time.
