Burglar blames mum for his life of crime

TWENTY-YEAR-OLD Terrence Dube is an unrepentant convicted burglar who believes that his mother pushed him to be a criminal by abandoning him when he was five years old.

Dube, who was sentenced to 36 months in jail and is incarcerated at Bulawayo Prison for robbery, unlawful entry and theft, said if it was not for his "selfish" mother, who abandoned him and went to South Africa in search of greener pastures, he wouldn't be in jail.

"From the information that I got from my grandmother, it is said that my father fell sick when I was around four years old and his condition deteriorated such that he later passed on leaving me in the custody of my mother.

"My mother was left with the duty to take care of me, but unfortunately, she was not formally employed.

The economic challenges that were already bedevilling the country saw her joining the bandwagon to South Africa in search of better employment opportunities," he said.

Dube said soon after his father's burial, his mother decided to go back to her family's house in Mzilikazi to rejoin her mother as she had no other person who could chip in and assist her in raising the required money for their rent.

"I always tell people that I don't even know the face of my mother. We only know each other through telephone conversations and basing on that, I can't say I have got a mother.

"From the time that she left going to South Africa she only started sending groceries a few months ago and the challenges that I encountered while staying with my grandmother were just too much such that I couldn't understand that my grandmother was really trying her best," he said.

The inmate said while under his granny's custody he encountered a lot of challenges especially at school such that he ended up applying other means to get basics that were expected from each and every pupil at primary or secondary level.

"My brother, each time I look at the life that I am living, I always ask myself what wrong did I do to my mother.

Right now, I can tell you that from the time she went to South Africa, she never bought me a satchel or a pair of school shoes like what other children were getting at that time.

"Instead, I survived on donations from well-wishers or it would be after stealing from other school children to try and match their standards," he said.

Dube said at primary level, some school children used to ask him on the whereabouts of his parents and he could not respond as he had never met both of them.

"Each time I knocked off from school, I used to ask my grandmother a lot of questions about my parents and she could not give me the answers that I needed at that time.

"Her failure to give me the answers that I wanted made me actually hate myself a lot as I used to think that something was not right with me thus these two special people decided to run away from me," he said.

The inmate said soon after completing his primary education, met friends who introduced him to drugs as a way of trying to deal with the stress that he was going through.

"I remember when I moved to Mzilikazi High, I met a lot of friends who introduced me to drugs that included dagga and nyaope.

We used to take these drugs as a way of trying to forget the challenges that we were encountering and from these drugs I would feel so useless considering that I had no one to talk to about my problems as a child.

"When we were committing these crimes, I never thought one day I would find myself being kept in a place like a prison.

Under the influence of these drugs, we used to go and ambush students from the Bulawayo Polytechnic or those from Northlea High School," he said.

They would rob the students of their money, mobile phones and laptops.

"This habit of stealing later saw me being expelled from Mzilikazi High School after I broke into a class of Advanced Level students and stole cellphones and laptops.

"My expulsion from school heralded a new dawn in my life as it was more of a graduation to full time stealing. We started breaking into houses in different suburbs around the city of Bulawayo," he said.

His break-in days were numbered and soon he was arrested for burglary.

"On the day when I was caught in Mahatshula I was alone, after I had gone back to one of the houses that we had broken into the previous week with my friends and from that house, we managed to get away without being caught.

"On the fateful day, I got into the house through the bathroom window and as I got into the house, I landed in a tub so the owner of the house heard that someone was in the house.

"The owner of the house armed himself with an iron bar and he came out from his bedroom and managed to attack me from behind before I could escape," he said.

Dube said after being caught he was taken to Queens Park Police Station.

"When I was taken to court, I never wanted to waste their time so I just told them what I knew about the issues that had been raised before the court and I was sentenced to 36 months.

"From the time I was brought to prison I have discovered that prison is not a good place especially for young boys like me.

I am actually discouraging boys of my age from committing crimes as this place is not good at all," he said.