Chronicle Editor
Charity Chikara, Sunday News Reporter
FOUR Monarch steel employees were recently arrested and appeared in court after they were allegedly caught stealing from the company on two separate occasions.
Three of the employees appeared in court two weeks ago after they were caught on CCTV stealing steel washers worth more than $700 000 from a warehouse and hiding them in a bucket. Tawanda Majoni (32), Amon Madeu (44) and Tumiso Mkandla (25) appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Mr Busani Sibanda were charged with the offence of theft. The court heard from the prosecutor Ms Portia Mashazhu that the three accused worked together in committing the offence.
“On 13 December 2022 at around 1.24AM, a security guard, Elias Chiza was doing his perimeter checks when he stumbled upon a 20-litre bucket containing 20.1kg of steel washers hidden by the drainage, inside it there were 10 923 steel washers,” said Ms Mashazhu.
They pleaded guilty and were each sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment with six months of their sentence suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour. The remaining six months were suspended on condition that they each perform 210 hours of community service.
Majoni and Mkandla will perform their unpaid services at Nkulumane Police Station while Madeu will be at Pumula Police Station. Another employee, Edmore Nyakudyara (38) appeared before the same magistrate after he was caught at a security checkpoint with two terminal blocks hidden beneath his jacket after his nightshift.
“On 18 December 2022 at around 4.30am the security guard, Elias Chiza was by the gate doing searches as the night shift had just knocked off. As the accused was being searched it was discovered that he was hiding two terminal blocks under his jacket,” said the prosecutor Ms Mashazhu.
Nyakudyara was sentenced to eight months’ imprisonment, three of which were suspended on condition of good behaviour and five were suspended for 210 hours of community service.
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