Magistrate refuses to recuse himself

No joy for three suspected cattle thieves who applied for the recusal of a Plumtree magistrate Joshua Nembaware after they were denied bail.

Shelton Dube (21), Sibangiswani Ncube (48) and Gilbert Ncube are facing stocktheft charges after allegedly stealing 18 heads of cattle.

The suspects through their lawyer Nqobani Sithole made an application recently for the magistrate's recusal saying he is biased.

Nembaware dismissed the application yesterday saying the trial has not started hence he cannot be biased

He further stated that the applicants failed to submit cogent and convincing reasons for his recusal. The trial has not even started,as such there's no likelihood of bias.

The State led by Roben Mukura alleged that on January 28 at Lydead Farm the trio hatched a plan to steal cattle from grazing paddocks.

Working on a tip-off the police intercepted the trio driving the cattle.

According to police, at least 11 313 stocktheft cases were recorded last year.

"A total of 1 150 arrests were made during the same period while a total of 5 471 suspects were convicted.

Last year, police in collaboration with the Directorate of Veterinary Services carried out an anti-stocktheft blitz