Highway robber jailed

Thupeyo Muleya Beitbridge Bureau
A 28-year-old armed robber from Beitbridge who was in the habit of waylaying motorists along major highways leading from the border town to Harare and Bulawayo was yesterday jailed for four years. Life Dzonge Zinata of Dulibadzimu was arrested in May after pouncing on a motorist who was attending to a tyre puncture at the 60km peg along the Beitbridge-Harare road, but his four accomplices are still on the run.

Zinata denied three charges of armed robbery when his trial opened before Beitbridge magistrate Gwineth Drawo, but was convicted due to overwhelming evidence against him.

He was sentenced to an effective three years in prison, after one year was suspended for five years.
Prosecuting, Lloyd Mupfungidza told the court that on May 13 at around 1915hours, the principal of Chitungwiza’s Nyatsime College Maone Vheremu was driving towards Harare from Beitbridge in the company of his wife Chiedza and a friend Claudius Choto.

Upon reaching the 60km peg, Vheremu spotted some donkeys crossing the road.
He slowed down his Nissan pickup truck and then discovered that one of the vehicle’s tyres had developed a puncture.

When he pulled the vehicle off the road to fix the tyre, Zinata emerged from the bush in the company of four accomplices and they were armed with iron bars, logs and machetes.

Zinata hit the college principal using an iron bar on the left leg while other gang members searched him and the car.
They took away clothes, two cell phones, groceries and cash amounting to $226 and R2,200.

Vheremu’s leg was fractured as a result of the assault. The court further heard that after attacking him, the gang pounced on his wife and Choto.
Zinata struck Choto on the head with a machete and forcibly took away his cellphone worth $21.

Choto sustained a deep cut on the head. Vheremu’s wife quickly surrendered her cell phone valued at $75 after she was threatened.
Soon after committing the crime, Zinata and his accomplices disappeared. The matter was reported to the police leading to Zinata’s arrest in the border town following a tip off. His accomplices are still at large.