adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
A GANG of thieves who broke into a grocery shop and emptied it, claiming they were “tricked by the devil”, will spend a combined 15 years in jail.Butholezwe Moyo, 32, Godknows Moyo, 30, Zwilenkosi Moyo, 28, Mbalisi Ndlovu and Blessed Moyo, 24, all of Makorokoro in Mangwe district, were yesterday each jailed for two-and-a-half years by Plumtree magistrate Gideon Ruvetsa after admitting theft charges.
They each had six months suspended conditionally.
The five men had, in mitigation, pleaded to be spared a jail sentence, pointing out that they had families to look after.
They also pointed out that desperation for money led them to committing the crime and that they had planned to replace the stolen goods once they had realised profits after selling them.
But Ruvetsa told the gang that they had to assume responsibility for their actions instead of blaming evil spirits.
“If sustaining your families is a priority to you, then you should have thought of earning money legitimately,” the magistrate told them before sentencing. “You knew that your actions would get you in jail thereby causing your separation with your families but you chose to proceed anyhow.”
On their initial appearance in court last week, the five men pointed out that they were devoted Christians who had been “tricked by the devil”.
The gang broke into a shop in Makorokoro owned by Auto Skhosana on the night of January 6 this year. Butholezwe, Godknows, Zwilenkosi and Blessed are Skhosana’s cousins.
Prosecuting, Stanley Chinyanganya said the group damaged a lock chain at Bongani General Dealer and stole goods worth $507.
Skhosana’s wife, Erika Moyo, discovered the break-in after finding the shop emptied on the following day. She later heard that Blessed was selling cooking oil from his homestead.
Police investigators recovered some of the stolen goods including cooking oil, milk, cigarettes, flour, Jiggies, tinned fish, whisky, an inverter and biscuits.
Online Reporter