Man jailed 2 years for driving into Mugabe motorcade

A HARARE truck driver, Joseph Chakanetsa, who last Saturday intercepted President Robert Mugabe's motorcade as the Zanu-PF leader was driving to his Borrowdale house, was yesterday slapped with a two-year jail term for negligent driving.

Chakanetsa received another 60-day imprisonment for failing to stop after committing the offence and for ignoring directives from Mugabe's security team to drive to Borrowdale Police Station.

However, for the second part of the sentence, he was given an option to pay $100 fine for failing to stop and a $200 fine for ignoring the officers' instructions.

Magistrate Tendai Rusinahama also prohibited Chakanetsa from driving heavy vehicles or public transport for life and cancelled his driver's licence.

Chakanetsa, who was convicted on his own plea of guilty after he told the court that he did not hear or realise the President's motorcade, was passing when he drove his truck into Borrowdale Road over the weekend.

He claimed that noise from his truck prevented him from picking the police siren, adding that when he realised that he had cut the Presidential motorcade, he literally lost his mind.

Prosecutor Patience Chimusaru told court that after committing the offence, Chakanetsa sped from the scene and drove through red traffic lights, and at times on the wrong side of the road, with police in hot pursuit until he was eventually arrested in Rugare suburb.