adminCollette Mukome
A MUTARE man was last week fined $120 for possessing an okapi knife.
Enock Zengeni (31) of House Number 7081, Chikanga 1 appeared before senior Mutare magistrate, Mrs Sekai Chiundura and was convicted on his own guilty plea.
Zengeni was arrested by patrol police officers at around 3am at the corner of Aerodrome and Bishop Road.
The police officers suspected that Zengeni wanted to commit an offence and searched him. Upon searching him they found an okapi knife and they suspected that he wanted to use it to commit an offence.
Zengeni told the court that he used the okapi knife to slice mangoes when at home.
Zengeni said: “I use this knife for everything when at home. On the day in question I was eating mangoes and forgot to leave the knife at home. I put it in my jacket without realising that I was committing an offence.”
Mrs Chiundura dismissed the claims and warned Zengeni to learn to be truthful.
“You are a bad liar. How can you keep an okapi knife in your jacket for the whole day and fail to realise the dangers of walking with it at around 3.30am. Would you deny the fact that you wanted to rob someone at those odd hours in a corner,” she said.
Zengeni insisted saying he had forgotten to leave the knife at home when he went to Mutare Provincial Hospital to take his wife.
“My wife was ill and she was admitted at the hospital. The doctors told us that when the drip was finished, my wife would be discharged. I was arrested on my way to the hospital. When they searched me, they found the knife in my jacket,” he said.
However, Mrs Chiundura could not buy Zengeni’s story and ordered him to pay a fine of $120, of which failure to pay will see him serving 60 days behind bars.
Mrs Chiundura said: “Go and work hard to raise the money to pay a fine. I don’t know what you are going to use at your homestead because the okapi knife is being forfeited to the State.”
Mr Fletcher Karombe prosecuted.
Online Reporter