Robbers jailed four years

TWO Harare man who robbed an Astro Mobile employee of his vehicle and were later involved in an accident were last Wednesday each sentenced to an effective four years in prison.

They were apprehended by people who had gathered on the scene of the accident and taken to the police.

Casper Nyamuzihwa (23) of Waterfalls was jointly charged with Bright Ngwenya

(18) of Southlea Park.

Their co-accused Bright Mhepo was acquitted of the charges by Chitungwiza resident magistrate Mr Francis Mapfumo.

Ngwenya and Nyamuzihwa denied the robbery charges, but were convicted after a full trial.

Mr Mapfumo gave them five-year prison terms each, but conditionally set aside a year for five years.

The prosecutor Mr Tatenda Mukatera proved that on January 17 this year at

around 4:30am, Blessed Mutwira (43) an administration officer at Astro Mobile was at a night club in Unit N, Chitungwiza.

Mutwira parked his vehicle, a Mitsubishi Pajero worth $3 500 after deciding to drink beer with his girlfriend.

The court heard that an identified woman approached Mutwira and broke four bottles of beer.

This forced Mutwira to go back to his car to get some more beer, but when he got to the car, a gang appeared suddenly and accused him of injuring one of them.

This led to a scuffle after which the gang persuaded Mutwira to accompany

them to the police on the pretext that they wanted to resolving their differences.

He complied and the gang demanded that one of them drove his vehicle, leading to a heated argument.

The gang then took turns to assault Mutwira in a bid to force him off the steering wheel.

One of them took control of the vehicle and drove for about half a kilometre, before the vehicle veered off the road and landed in a ditch.

The trio tried to flee, but were apprehended, before Mutwira revealed that he had been robbed by the three.