President Mugabe's thieving 'relative' jailed

A thieving Chihnoyi man -Charles Jenami (39) claimed in court that he was President Robert Mugabe's relative after he was accused  of nine counts of fraud involving $18 503.

Jenami was slapped with a 35 month in jail by Chinhoyi magistrate Ngoni Nduna.

Jenami will effectively serve 18 months if he restitutes $9 900 by January 31, 2016.

Passing judgment last Thursday, Nduna said the accused was going around committing crimes using the name of the President thereby tarnishing the image of the Head of State.

Nduna said the nine complainants should not have escaped prosecution as they paid bribes to the accused.

"The complainants should have been prosecuted as they approached the courts with dirty hands," Nduna said.

It was the State's case that Jenami, a father of 15 children, impersonating a public official, who had the capacity to allocate farms received money from Yamurai Investment ($7 883), Micheal Zimba ($430), Brighton Kasuro ($2 370), Charles Maramba ($430), Edmore Nyamutswa ($1 270), Never Magaya ($500 and $1 600) and Stanley Musenda ($500 and $3 520) for non-existent farms.

Jenami is also awaiting trial for two other fraud cases involving land with other five family members at the same court on November 24 and December 9, 2015.

Arthur Bosha prosecuted.