GWANDA — An illegal gold dealer found in possession of 7,2 grammes of gold, without a licence, will spend the next five years in prison after he was convicted on his own plea of guilty by a Gwanda magistrate.
Albert Ncube
Rangarirai Manjera (32) appeared before magistrate Douglas Vakayi Chikwekwe to answer charges of illegal gold possession and was sentenced to the mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
Allegations against Manjera were that on September 9, detectives from the minerals unit in Gwanda were patrolling Filabusi.
Acting on a tip-off, detectives raided some illegal gold dealers at Fred Mine shops. When they arrived, Manjera who recognised the vehicle, tried to run away, raising the detectives’ suspicions, who chased after and caught him.
Officers searched Manjera and recovered a khaki paper in his pockets containing a cigarette box foil with some gold in it and three gold scales.
The gold ore weighed 9,14 grammes and contained 7,24 grammes of pure gold worth $304,08.
The magistrate ordered the recovered gold be forfeited to the State. In handing down the sentence, Chikwekwe said there were no special circumstances that led Manjera to commit the offence, hence the mandatory minimum sentence of five years.
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