Youths jailed for extortion, kidnapping

Hardlife Ndlovu (29) of House Number 1111 Emakhandeni, Nqobani Mlilo (31) of 1987 Nkulumane 10 and his neighbour Mthunzi Mabhena (20) of 1986 Nkulumane 10 had pleaded not guilty, but were last Wednesday convicted by Bulawayo regional magistrate Mr Mark Dzira.
They were each sentenced to one year for extortion and four years for kidnapping. Two years of their sentences were suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour.

Their defence counsel, Advocate Sabelo Sibanda, of SKM Sibanda and Partners, pleaded with the court to exercise lenience on his clients as they are breadwinners of their families with a number of dependants.
A fourth member of the gang, Obert Musindo (32), of 64637/2 Tshabalala and is employed as a general hand at Mpilo Central Hospital, had charges against him withdrawn at the close of the State case.

Mr Goodluck Katenaire, for the State, conceded that there was no evidence linking Musindo to the crime hence the withdrawal of the charges after plea.
The State proved that on 7 March this year, the trio, which was driving a blue kombi, approached the three complainants who are route marshals at Mac’s Garage, where they load commuter omnibuses that ply the Masvingo, Filabusi and Gwanda routes.
They ordered Messrs Wilson Mukamba, Mugove Nhete and Danny Mpofu and a number of their colleagues into their vehicle and drove them to the Zanu-PF Bulawayo provincial headquarters at Davies Hall against their will.

The State proved that they demanded $50 from each of the route marshals, saying the money was meant to buy fuel for party vehicles parked at Davies Hall.
They told them that if they did not pay, they would bar them from loading vehicles at the garage. They also told the complainants that once they paid the money, on a daily basis, they would protect them from police harassment on the roads.

The complainants pleaded with them to reduce the money they were asking for, saying it was impossible for them to raise it. They negotiated and ended up settling for $12 for the Masvingo route, $7 for the Filabusi and $5 for Gwanda routes.

The youths released the complainants at around 3pm, after holding them up for nearly two hours. They made an arrangement whereby the trio would call them to get the money once they had collected it from vehicles plying their respective routes.

A trap was set up for the trio when they went to collect the money about 45 minutes after releasing the complainants.
Plain-clothes detectives pounced on them when they showed up.