Malayitsha get 5 years for robbery

A detective formerly attached to the Vehicle Theft Squad and an injiva who are part of a gang that robbed members of a family from Bulilima District in Matabeleland South Province of R10 000 before kidnapping them, were yesterday sentenced to 11 years in jail.

Thabani Maziya(36), of 22 Cedarberg Heights, Berea, South Africa and is an umalayitsha and Artwell Nkala (39), of 7918 Sizinda had pleaded not guilty to aggravated robbery and two counts of kidnapping but were convicted by former Bulawayo regional magistrate, Mrs Fadzai Mthombeni.

Mrs Mthombeni, who is now based in Harare and is back to complete her partly heard cases, suspended two years of their sentence for five years on condition of good behaviour.

A further two years were suspended on condition that they jointly or severally pay restitution of R10 000 to the complainant by 31 August this year.

In passing sentence, Mrs Mthombeni said she had taken into account that the pair has been in remand prison for the past three years and that the delay was not of their making.

She also considered that the pair had offered to pay restitution but noted with concern that Nkala, as a police officer, had betrayed the trust bestowed upon him by the complainants and the nation as a whole.

"Society expects police to protect them but when the police abuse these powers that is not acceptable. The court has also taken into account that the accused used violence.

"Where there is benefit in the commission of a crime courts will not condone the perpetrators. This offence was well planned and well executed as it involved tracing the complainants to their rural home in Madlambudzi, Bulilima District," said the magistrate.

It was the State case that on 28 April 2010, at around 6am, Maziya and Nkala, in the company of three others, who are still at large, Jethro Mpofu, Richard Shaba and Saziso Tshongwe, went to Mr Remigious Ndebele's homestead in the Madlambudzi area.

They were driving a Toyota Hilux twin cab belonging to Maziya.

At the homestead, the State proved that they demanded from Mr Ndebele's wife, Stella, cash amounting to R50 000 at gunpoint.

They managed to get R10 000, which was in the custody of Mrs Ndebele after assaulting and pointing a firearm at her.

They forced Mr Ndebele's wife and his sister into their vehicle and drove them to Bulawayo under guard and went to Mr Teddy Ndebele's house in Lobengula West thinking they would get more money.

The gang, which was alleging that Teddy had stolen money in South Africa, introduced themselves as police officers from Pretoria in South Africa accompanied by their Zimbabwean counterparts from Beitbridge.

After failing to get any cash from Teddy's house, they left Mrs Ndebele and her sister-in-law behind and went away with the R10 000 they had stolen in Madlambudzi.

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