Shopkeeper jailed for five months over dagga possession

A 20-year-old shopkeeper from Inyathi, Bubi District, has been sentenced to 10 months in prison with five months suspended for five years, after being convicted of unlawful possession of dangerous drugs.

Patience Prisca Nkomo, a resident of Lottondale Village and shopkeeper at Phakhamani Shops, was convicted after being found in possession of dagga on August 18, 2026.

The court heard that at around 10:15 hours on the day in question, police received information that Nkomo was in possession of illegal drugs.

Acting on the information, police searched Nkomo at her shop and recovered the drug. She was subsequently issued with exhibit seizure confirmation receipt number 0178239.

The recovered dagga was weighed in Nkomo’s presence at Turkmine Postal Office and weighed 75 grams. A weighing certificate was subsequently issued.

In passing the sentence the magistrate, Mr Challenge Mahembe, considered that Nkomo was a first offender and female falling within a special category, and had shown remorse for her conduct.

However, the court found that the aggravating factors outweighed the mitigating circumstances.

The State had urged the court to impose a deterrent sentence, arguing that drugs were highly addictive and mind-altering and had contributed to the destruction of young people and society.

The court considered the quantity of dagga to be substantive and said the circumstances could lead to an inference that Nkomo was dealing in the drug, which increased her moral blameworthiness.

The court also considered the alleged exposure of children to the offence as an aggravating factor.

In determining the appropriate sentence, Mahembe noted that a sentence should be meaningful and proportionate to the offence and should not trivialise the seriousness of the crime.

Although the court acknowledged that imprisonment should generally be a last resort for a first offender, it found that the seriousness of the offence and the weighty aggravating factors warranted a custodial sentence.

Nkomo was then sentenced to 10 months imprisonment, of which five months were suspended for five years on condition that she does not, during that period, commit any offence involving the possession, use, consumption, manufacture or cultivation of dangerous drugs, or any offence for which she is sentenced to imprisonment without the option of a fine.

The remaining five months are effective.