adminMidlands Correspondent
Public transport drivers should be jailed when involved in accidents because they are now a menace on the roads, Gweru provincial magistrate, Pathekile Msipa has said.She said this while jailing two kombi drivers and a bus driver to a combined seven years in prison after the trio were found guilty of culpable homicide when they appeared separately before her.
“Negligence from among the kombi and bus drivers when behind the wheel has become a leading cause of road carnage and it is high time you should be given deterrent sentences so as to send a clear message to other public transport drivers that there is only one life,” said Msipa.
She sentenced Albert Magara (54), a bus driver with Zimasco Company to three-and-a-half years in prison after convicting him of running over a woman in Gweru central business district.
Magara, of Iron Side compound in Shurugwi, will serve an effective three years in jail after Mrs Msipa suspended six months of his sentence on condition of good behaviour.
Prosecuting, Bernard Nyoni told the court that on 26 June this year, at around 7 am, Magara was driving a Scania Marcopolo bus with seven passengers on board when he ran over the now deceased Mercy Mukwasini.
She was taken to Gweru Provincial Hospital where she died upon admission. Magara was arrested after police investigations found that he was speeding.
Appearing separately before the same court was a 30-year-old kombi driver, Takura Shava who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years after he was found guilty of culpable homicide.
Shava of Mbizo 17 in Kwekwe was involved in an accident which killed one person when his kombi overturned along Harare-Masvingo Road. The accident occurred on 1 April this year.
Shava will serve two years in prison after six months were suspended on condition of good behaviour. The State’s case was that Shava who was a commuter omnibus driver plying Harare-Masvingo route was involved in an accident while driving an 18-seater Toyota Hiace carrying 24 passengers.
Also appearing before the same court was Runesu Tamba, 20 of Gweru’s Mkoba Village Six who was slapped with two-and-a-half years after he was found guilty of culpable homicide.
Six months of Tamba’s sentence were also suspended on condition of good behaviour. The State’s case against Tamba was that on June 1, he was driving a kombi from Gweru city centre to Mkoba with 18 passengers on board.
Tamba was later involved in an accident near Mkoba Village 12 when he lost control of the kombi, veered off the road and overturned killing one person on the spot while injuring 10 others.
The matter was attended by the police leading to Tamba’s arrest.
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