adminMarvelous Moyo Gwanda Correspondent
A GWANDA woman failed in her attempt to save her stock thief son from going to jail when a magistrate rejected her bid to withdraw charges and sentenced the son to 12 years in jail.Idah Mbangeni, 66, of Mawanke village under Chief Mathema, pressed charges against her son Nkululeko Mbangeni, 29, a kombi driver in Gwanda, for stealing a goat, three head of cattle and three donkeys from her.
The beasts were all valued at $1,720.
The elderly woman, who walks with the assistance of a cane, developed cold feet after learning that a mandatory sentence for stock theft involving cattle was nine years.
Fearing that her son would spend many years in prison, Idah made frantic efforts to withdraw the stock theft charges involving cattle and donkeys claiming that she had not made any report to the police.
“Your Worship, I initially went to the police to report a matter of stolen money but I ended up saying a lot of things and I didn’t know that police were recording them.
“The issue of cattle and donkeys is only between me and my son. I mentioned it in passing at the police station. We’ll resolve it as a family. Therefore, I’m withdrawing the charges.
“However, he should be punished for stealing money and my goat,” Idah told the court.
Magistrate Olivia Mashava Mashaire, who was presiding over the matter, asked Idah whether she wanted to withdraw the charges because of the nine-year mandatory sentence, but she denied this.
Idah, who was interviewed about the issue by prosecutors before it was taken to court, had confirmed that she wanted her son to be punished for stealing her livestock and money.
Passing sentence, Mashava Mashaire said she had considered that Nkululeko had pleaded guilty to stock theft and did not waste the court’s time but did not find any special circumstances that would make the court depart from the stock theft mandatory sentence.
“Stock theft is a very serious offence and offenders like the accused person have to be punished severely. He is an able bodied man but he deprived his elderly mother of her money and property. Theft like any other offence isn’t tolerated at all.
“Accused started from a deeper end and he can’t be spared jail, he needs to learn the hard way,” she said.
Mashava Mashaire sentenced Nkululeko to 18 years imprisonment of which six years were suspended for five years on condition he does not commit a similar offence within that period.
He will serve an effective 12 years and an additional three months for the theft of money.
Nkululeko was also fined $100 or 30 days imprisonment for assaulting a fellow villager, Anayi Ndlovu, 57, in a misunderstanding over a goat.
Prosecutor Getrude Zvidzai told the court that in December 2012 at around 12Noon, and at his mother’s homestead, Nkululeko stole a goat and slaughtered it for relish without his mother’s consent.
Sometime in April 2013, Idah’s three head of cattle went missing and after searching for them for almost a year, Nkululeko revealed that he was the one who stole the beasts and sold them to one Mandla Songo of Sizeze village.
Againn October 2, 2014, Nkululeko stole three donkeys belonging to his mother and sold them to an unknown person in Matobo.
Online Reporter