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Zimbabwe trio steals Botswana cattle

by Staff reporter
29 Aug 2019 at 07:38hrs | Views
THREE people from Gwanda among them a 56-year-old woman have been arrested for allegedly stealing 52 cattle, 26 of them from Botswana.

Nkosiyabo Gumbi (38), Nkosikhona Moyo (34) and Violet Khumalo (56) all from Ngoma Village in Tuli were not asked to plead when they appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Lerato Nyathi, facing two counts of stock theft.

Gumbi was denied bail as he had resisted arrest while Moyo and Khumalo were remanded out of custody on $100 bail. They will appear in court on September 12 for trial.

Prosecuting, Miss Glenda Nare said the trio stole 26 cattle belonging to 10 complainants from Maboliwe Village, Semolale area in Botswana while the owners of the other 26 cattle are still to be located.

"On a date unknown but during the period extending from 1 February 2018 to 8 May 2019, the accused persons acting in common cause stole 26 herd of cattle from Semolale area in Botswana belonging to 10 Botswana nationals and they took them to Plot 43 Railway Block in West Nicholson where they kept them under the care of Gumbi," she said.

"The trio shared the cattle amongst themselves with Gumbi getting 13, Moyo getting 11 and Khumalo got two beasts. They each branded their allocation of cattle with their personal brand marks thereby obliterating the complainants brand marks, zone brand marks and vaccination brand marks."

Miss Nare said on May 29 four of the complainants received a tip off that their cattle were being held at Plot 43, Railway Block in West Nicholson and they went there to investigate. She said the complainants positively identified their cattle and they alerted the police.

Miss Nare said the cattle were driven to Guyu Police Station where the other complainants were called from Botswana and also identified their cattle from the lot that was being held at the police station.  

Miss Nare said the complainants positively identified their cattle in the presence of Gumbi, Moyo and Khumalo. She said on the second count, on a date unknown the trio stole 26 cattle from an unknown place and took them to the same plot.

Miss Nare said the cattle were found in Gumbi's kraal on May 29. Miss Nare said police carried out investigations and established that Gumbi had falsified 2019 entries in his stock card entries while Moyo did not have a stock card.She said the 26 cattle have multiple brands.

Source - chronicle