2025: The year that proved crime does not pay

Yeukai Karengezeka

Court Correspondent

THE year 2025 served as a stark courtroom reminder, no matter how clever, desperate, or audacious the scheme, crime ultimately leads to a dead end.

From heartbreaking betrayals within families to absurd attempts at power, justice spent the year catching up with those who believed they could outsmart the system.

Here are some of the most shocking and bizarre cases that landed perpetrators behind bars.

1. The Cruellest Con: Profiting from a Family’s Despair

A community’s search for a missing child in Dzivarasekwa turned from desperation to disgust thanks to one man’s callous greed. After an 11-year-old boy vanished, his family blanketed social media with pleas for help. Chrispen Nyoni (32), seeing not a tragedy but an opportunity, contacted the boy’s aunt. He pretended to have crucial information, convincing her to send him nearly US$25 for “airtime, data, and transport.” The information never came—only silence. Arrested in Bulawayo, Nyoni was sentenced to five months in prison for fraud, a paltry penalty for a crime that compounded a family’s agony.

2. The Gambler’s Ruin: A Shift Manager’s Bad Bet

William Gonese (28) made a spectacularly foolish calculation. As a shift manager at Simbisa Bakers Inn, he was entrusted with a US$3 420 cash float. In a misguided attempt to impress his new wife, he diverted the entire sum to an online gambling site during a night shift, hoping to double it. By 3:08am, the money was gone—US$470 in cash and US$2 950 in digital credits vanished into the void. After confessing to his auditor, Gonese faced Magistrate Lynne Chinzou. His sentence: 30 months in jail, with 20 suspended on condition of restitution. He will serve 10 months contemplating a gamble he could never win.

3. A Nephew’s Trust, Betrayed

In a similar tale of gambling addiction destroying trust, Munyaradzi Gumunyu (33) was entrusted with US$17 000 by his nephew, Brandon Chirisa, who was departing for the UK. The money was meant for Chirisa’s sister. Instead, Gumunyu blitzed through the entire amount on sports betting in under two weeks. To cover his tracks, he staged a break-in at his own home. The ruse quickly unravelled and he confessed.

4. A Forgery in the Family: The Poisoned Pen

Gregory Graham Hall (50) of Kariba weaponized grief and greed against his own sister. After their mother’s death, he presented a forged will, dated 2008, that named him the sole beneficiary of an estate worth over US$181 000, disinheriting his sister Melanie. For years, the fraud succeeded. But suspicion grew and a forensic document examiner confirmed the signature was a fake. Harare Regional Magistrate Mrs Sandra Mupindu convicted Hall of fraud and forgery, sentencing him to three years in prison. He was also ordered to restitute US$130 000 to the estate by year’s end.

5. The “King” Without a Crown: A Throne of Lies

In one of the year’s most delusional crimes, Timothy Chiminya appointed himself “King Munhumutapa” and embarked on a surreal campaign to overthrow Zimbabwe’s traditional leadership. Armed with dubious spiritual authority, he spent a year “dethroning” sitting chiefs and installing his own appointees in Chirumhanzu and Zaka. His defence—a since-rescinded High Court order—failed to convince the bench. Harare Magistrate Tapiwa Kuhudzai found him guilty of undermining the office of the President, sentencing the would-be monarch to eight months behind bars.

6. The Crutch-Wielding Bandit

Benjamin Jana Mutambanengwe (38) turned clinics into his hunting ground. Using crutches to feign disability and elicit sympathy, he stole laptops, phones, and other valuables from medical facilities across Harare. His luck ran out when he returned to Health Point Hospital—the scene of a previous theft—disguised with nothing but a newspaper. Recognised immediately, he was arrested. His spree earned him an eight-year prison sentence.

7. A Fatal Abuse of Power

Police Officer Talent Mabvuwo was sentenced to 10 years in prison by the Chinhoyi High Court for the fatal shooting of artisanal miner Douglas Sivaminyile. In May 2024, Mabvuwo’s team attempted to apprehend Sivaminyile, who was holding an axe. Instead of de-escalating, Mabvuwo fired three shots, killing the man instantly. The sentence stood as a rare and solemn condemnation of lethal force.

8. The Gardener’s Blundering Heist

Gardener Mathew Limbani Ndovi plotted what he thought was the perfect crime. While his employer was away, he disabled CCTV cameras, stole US$75 000 from her office, and started a small fire to cover his tracks. The plan was as clumsy as it was cruel. Detectives swiftly tracked him down, recovering US$22 600. Ndovi was sentenced to six years in prison, with two years suspended for restitution and another for good behaviour.

The Lesson of 2025

Whether driven by addiction, greed, delusion, or a moment of terrible judgment, the perpetrators of 2025’s most absurd crimes all shared the same destination. Their stories form a modern-day parable: the path of deception, no matter how it begins, leads inexorably to the courtroom and the cell. Crime, as the year proved definitively, does not pay.