Kombi driver nabbed after high speed chase

Court Reporter
POLICE in Bulawayo have arrested a commuter omnibus driver and recovered seven rounds of ammunition after a speed chase. Fanethi Ndlovu (45) allegedly made a U-turn in front of the police as he approached a roadblock near Queens Park fly-over and sped away. The police gave chase and arrested him along the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road after deflating the vehicle’s tyres by shooting at them.

Ndlovu is now facing a charge of failing to comply with police instructions in violation of the Road Traffic Act, one of possessing firearm without a certificate in violation of the Firearms Act and another of failing to appear before an immigration officer.

This was after police later conducted a search at his house Number 176 Harrisvale in Bulawayo and recovered a passport, which despite being in his name, showed that he had crossed the border from South Africa on 23 August this year but had no official date stamp from the Zimbabwe Immigration Department.

Ndlovu was not asked to plead to the three charges when he appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Ms Gladmore Mushove yesterday.
He was remanded out of custody to 10 October on $100 bail.

Ndlovu was ordered to report every fortnight at Sauerstown Police Station until the matter has been finalised.
Mr Raymond Jaravaza for the State, told the court that on 16 September, Ndlovu was driving a kombi along Robert Mugabe Way towards the city centre when he approached the roadblock.

After Ndlovu had made a U-turn, police gave chase in a car belonging to a motorist and instructed him to stop but without success.
The court was told that Ndlovu sped for about 5km into the Bulawayo-Victoria Falls Road prompting the police to fire warning shots in the air.

It is alleged that police shot a tyre and deflated it seeing that efforts to stop Ndlovu were not bearing any fruits.
Ndlovu allegedly disembarked from the kombi and started running into the bush but was shot on the right leg leading to his arrest.

The police searched his kombi and recovered seven rounds of ammunition from the ash tray. The court was told that Ndlovu then led the detectives to his house where the passport was recovered after a search.