Online Reporter
Thupeyo Muleya, Beitbridge Bureau
A 44-year-old man who is believed to be part of a gang of thieves who are in the habit of stealing goats around Beitbridge, which they slaughter and sell to backyard kitchens, has been jailed for an effective 14 months by the Beitbridge provincial magistrate court.
The racket is accused of unleashing a reign of terror in villages around the border town.
Wiseman Dube, who has been playing hide and seek with the police, was finally arrested after stealing five goats in the Tshapfutshe area in March this year.
He was convicted of a charge of stock theft and another of possession of prohibited knives when he appeared before Beitbridge Resident Magistrate Mr Takudzwa Gwazemba on Thursday.
Prosecutor, Mr Tawanda Chigavazira, said the accused, who is also a pirate taxi driver, went to Tshapfutshe area on March 19 this year driving a Honda Fit while in the company of two other suspects who are still at large.
He dropped his two accomplices in the grazing lands in the area and parked his car at a secluded area.
The two men stole five goats belonging to a local villager, which they loaded into Dube’s car.
After which they drove to Beitbridge town and upon getting to the town, they drove to a bush area some 10km along the road leading to Bulawayo, where they slaughtered the five goats.
However, they were spotted by another resident who alerted the police who swiftly reacted and arrested Dube while his two accomplices escaped.
The police recovered the five carcasses worth R9600 and a set of knives which Dube and his team had used to slaughter the stolen goats.
The theft of livestock around Beitbridge district and also between South Africa and Zimbabwe, especially goats, sheep and cattle has become a perennial headache resulting in communities living in the two countries collaborating to fight stock theft.
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