adminThe court dismissed Masuku’s application for bail pending trial and the pair was remanded in custody to 8 February.
On Monday Masuku appeared in court jointly charged for possessing property suspected to be stolen with the proprietor of Roncalo Motors, Wilfred Manemo.
They were again not formally charged and will next appear in court on the same date.
Manemo (43), of Number 1 Butler Road, Kumalo was granted $100 bail, ordered to surrender his travel documents to the Clerk of Court, reside at his given address until the finalisation of his matter and he should not interfere with investigations and State witnesses.
The court heard that on 2 November 2010, the yet to be named complainant, took her Toyota Hiace to Enock Nyirenda for repairs.
On 5 November Kambare approached Nyirenda in the company of Abel Sithole who used to assist Nyirenda in repairing vehicles.
The State alleges that Kambare and Sithole, who is still at large, hatched a plan to steal the Toyota Hiace and allegedly lied to Nyirenda that they wanted to borrow the vehicle so that they could tow their vehicle from Drill Hall.
The State alleges that they did not go to Drill Hall but instead took the vehicle to Masuku and the trio allegedly made a duplicate key before returning the Toyota Hiace to Nyirenda.
It is alleged that on the same day between 7 and 8 pm, the trio went to Nyirenda’s house at Ridgeview Flats at the corner of 3rd Avenue and Main Street and allegedly stole the vehicle.
They allegedly drove the vehicle to Masuku’s house in Greenhill and hid it.
Between December 2010 and January 2011, Masuku allegedly bought a shell of a Toyota Hiace from Nephat Sibanda who was breaking it for spares.
The shell still had its registration number plates and chassis number tags, which Masuku allegedly removed and affixed to the allegedly stolen vehicle and threw away the original ones.
Masuku then allegedly bought an engine block from Philani Ngwenya and allegedly erased the engine number from the allegedly stolen Toyota Hiace and engraved new ones.
The State will seek to prove that the trio then buried the engine block, which Masuku had bought at the back of his house and it was later recovered still intact.
Masuku allegedly retrieved Sibanda’s registration book and with the rebuilt Toyota Hiace he went to the Bulawayo City Council where he altered the engine number.
In November last year, Masuku allegedly gave the rebuilt Toyota Hiace to Theresa Michael Bell in exchange for a BMW with South African registration and an unregistered Suzuki Carry.
Mr Trust Muduma appeared for the State while Advocate Sabelo Sibanda, of SKM Sibanda and Partners defended Masuku and Manemo.
Online Reporter