Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku
A FORMER driver of a Supreme Court Judge thought rubbing shoulders with the big wigs of the bench was enough to sell dreams of freedom, but his courtroom fairy tale has ended with a guilty verdict and a looming sentence.
Henry Ntini (39) who once chauffeured a Supreme Court Judge, is now famous for using his perceived proximity to the country’s top judges to convince a desperate woman that he could “close the deal” and secure bail for her jailed husband, for just US$4 800.
In November 2023, Jane Queen Ghoveya’s husband Khumbulani Sithole was convicted of murder and sentenced to 10 years. After his appeal was dismissed, hope arrived in the form of Ntini’s smooth talk and “Supreme Court connections.”
US$4 800 later, the only thing that moved fast was the money.
On 21 November, the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal as improperly done and the promised bail evaporated like morning mist.
Realising she had been sold a dream, Ghoveya chased the pair for her cash before reporting the matter to the ZRP Commercial Crimes Division.
Ntini now swaps chauffeur gloves for prison blues when he returns to court on 9 January for sentencing.
Ntini and his co-accused Zamani Gwizi (47) of Nkulumane were dragged before Bulawayo Provincial magistrate Richard Ramaboea after fleecing Ghoveya of US$4 800 with promises of Supreme Court magic.
The court heard that Ntini paraded himself as a man with the right contacts, dropping big court names and flashing his former driver status like a VIP pass to freedom.
“Ndiri munhu wepaSupreme Court,” Ntini allegedly told the worried wife, making it sound like judges were just one phone call away.
But when judgment day came, the magic vanished.
The magistrate acquitted Gwizi but found Ntini guilty, ruling that the so-called fixer was the one who took the money, signed an affidavit promising to return US$2 300 and later admitted he only paid back part of it to save his job.
Driving a judge does not mean you can drive justice, is the lesson Ntini must have learnt.
