News / Regional
Woman gets 2 yrs for selling cannabis to school pupils
28 Mar 2013 at 13:47hrs | Views
A Bulilima woman, 51, has been sentenced to two years in prison for selling cannabis (mbanje) to school pupils.
Susan Sibanda of Pharaoh Sibanda's homestead in Nophe Village under Chief Masendu's area was convicted on her own plea of guilty to dealing in dangerous drugs when she appeared before Plumtree magistrate, Mr Livard Philemon.
Eight months of her sentence were suspended for five years on condition that she does not within the period commit an offence of the same nature.
On arriving at the sentence, the magistrate indicated that he had initially considered sentencing Sibanda to more than 40 months in prison as her actions were endangering the lives of many people, especially those of pupils but he considered her age.
The State case as presented by Mr Paul Mpofu was that on 21 March detectives received information to the effect that Sibanda cultivated dagga at her home.
They went to her house and found 44 plants of dagga, which were in her garden at the back of her granary. The plants were measuring between1,6 and 2, 5 metres.
The detectives also discovered some twists of the dagga under her cupboard, in a mealie-meal sack and others in a sack with tobacco, leading to her arrest.
The detectives were alerted after Sibanda gave her 14-year-old son who is a Form Three pupil at Tokwana High School some of the drugs to sell at school.
The headmistress of the school was told about a boy who was selling drugs to pupils at the school. She alerted detectives in Plumtree who came and searched the boy's belongings and found him in possession of mbanje.
The boy revealed that he was given the drugs by his mother.
In mitigation, Sibanda said she relied on selling the dangerous drug as a source of income for sustaining her six children.
Susan Sibanda of Pharaoh Sibanda's homestead in Nophe Village under Chief Masendu's area was convicted on her own plea of guilty to dealing in dangerous drugs when she appeared before Plumtree magistrate, Mr Livard Philemon.
Eight months of her sentence were suspended for five years on condition that she does not within the period commit an offence of the same nature.
On arriving at the sentence, the magistrate indicated that he had initially considered sentencing Sibanda to more than 40 months in prison as her actions were endangering the lives of many people, especially those of pupils but he considered her age.
The State case as presented by Mr Paul Mpofu was that on 21 March detectives received information to the effect that Sibanda cultivated dagga at her home.
The detectives also discovered some twists of the dagga under her cupboard, in a mealie-meal sack and others in a sack with tobacco, leading to her arrest.
The detectives were alerted after Sibanda gave her 14-year-old son who is a Form Three pupil at Tokwana High School some of the drugs to sell at school.
The headmistress of the school was told about a boy who was selling drugs to pupils at the school. She alerted detectives in Plumtree who came and searched the boy's belongings and found him in possession of mbanje.
The boy revealed that he was given the drugs by his mother.
In mitigation, Sibanda said she relied on selling the dangerous drug as a source of income for sustaining her six children.
Source - TC
