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George Maponga in Masvingo
A 30-year-old Masvingo man has been jailed for an effective 12 years by a Masvingo Magistrates Court after he pepper-sprayed 46 passengers in a Beitbridge-bound bus before stealing valuables worth over US$16 000 and 187 000 rand at gunpoint.
Brighton Marange of Munetsi Village under Chief Nyajena and his accomplices Mpokoseng Nyathi and Godknows Moyo, who are both still at large, pretended to be genuine passengers and boarded an MB Transport bus at Mbudzi in Harare in December 2021.
They then robbed the passengers along the Harare-Masvingo highway.
Marange was convicted by magistrate Mr Innocent Bepura due to overwhelming evidence.
The court heard that the convict and his accomplices produced a pistol at the 60km peg along the highway around 02.30am on December 23, 2023, and ordered the bus driver to stop.
One of them fired one shot that damaged the bus’ windscreen.
The State led by prosecutor Mr Liberty Hove said the trio pepper-sprayed the driver, Ephison Mugiyo, before turning to other passengers while demanding cash and valuables.
They stabbed one of the passengers with an Okapi knife to force him to produce cash and went on to attack three other passengers with a metal bar while pepper-spraying them.
After collecting cash and other valuables, the robbers vanished into the night.
Mugiyo managed to make a police report at Ngundu Police Station.
In January 2022, a cartridge from the bullet fired by Marange was sent to the Forensic Ballistics Department.
Marange was arrested by police in Beitbridge the following month after a cartridge from a bullet he fired in an attempted murder case matched the one used in the MB Transport bus robbery.
Online Reporter