Chronicle Editor
Natasha Sipindiye, Sunday News Reporter
TWO men from Mbembesi have been arrested for allegedly snaring a fellow villager’s cow which they later skinned in the bush and shared the meat.
The two were arrested on 16 June at Lochard when they were found in possession of the meat which they failed to account for.
Talent Shoko (28) and Brandon Mpofu (23) appeared before Ms Nomagugu Maphosa at the Bulawayo Magistrate’s Courts charged with contravening Section 114 (2) (c) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23, stocktheft.
They were remanded out of custody to 4 July on $200 000 bail. The State case as presented by the prosecutor, Ms Ashley Dube was that on 16 June at about 7pm, the two went to Lochard Village grazing area with a wire snare and a wheelbarrow targeting a stray cow which they were aware of.
The court was told that on arrival they set the snare and drove the cow into it and it was caught. It was the State case that the two then slaughtered the cow and shared it among themselves before putting the meat in the wheelbarrow and leaving the scene. They, however, did not clear off the area where they had skinned the cow but left part of the meat that they did not want as they headed to their homesteads.
Ms Dube said the following day the offence was discovered by other villagers who followed the track made by the wheelbarrow from the scene leading to the arrest of the two.
The meat and the wheelbarrow were recovered and the two could not give a satisfactory answer as to where they got the meat from. The value of the cow was approximately US$$400.
Bongani Ndlovu