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Senior Court Reporter
TWO cattle rustlers who are brothers from Umguza District yesterday pleaded with the magistrate not to send them to jail for trapping their neighbour’s beast, saying they were driven by poverty to commit the offence.
The plea, however, fell on deaf ears as Bulawayo magistrate Mrs Gladmore Mushove convicted the pair on its own plea of guilty to stocktheft.
She sentenced Honest Dube (18) and his brother Phathisani (20) to an effective nine years in jail each for conniving to set a trap on their neighbour’s beast while grazing in the field.
In mitigation, Phathisani said: “Your Worship please spare us the agony of prison life. We teamed up and ensnared the complainant’s beast so that I could put food on the table after selling the meat.”
Prosecuting, Ms Concilia Ncube told the court how on the night of 8 November, Honest and Phathisani ganged up and set snares at Plot 3 Hellenvale B in Umguza District resulting in them trapping Mr Landi Moyo’s bull.
“Honest and Phathisani set snares at Mr Moyo’s plot and trapped a brown Brahman which they slaughtered and skinned. The two men took the carcass to Marsland Compound during which they tried to contact their buyer,” said Ms Ncube.
The court was told that their buyer failed to pitch up resulting in the meat getting bad.
They consumed some of the meat before dumping the remainder in a Blair toilet.
Acting on a tip-off, police descended on the two men’s homestead leading to the discovery of the rotten meat and the Dube brothers were arrested.
Online Reporter