CRIME AND COURTS
Three jailed over donkey theft, police assault and USD15 000 fraud
Three people have been convicted and sentenced in separate court cases in Zimbabwe for donkey theft, assaulting a police officer, illegal passenger transport and fraud involving more than US$15 000.
In the first case, the Tredgold Magistrates’ Court sentenced 33-year-old Trynose Mpofu of Village One, Mamboweni, to an effective six months in prison for stealing a donkey valued at US$150.
The court heard that in December 2025, Mpofu went to a grazing area in Mamboweni and drove away a light-grey female donkey belonging to a villager before taking it to Village 15, Ntobi, in Inyathi, where he sold it.
A neighbour who recognised the stolen animal alerted the owner, who reported the matter to the police, leading to Mpofu’s arrest.
The donkey was subsequently recovered.
Mpofu was sentenced to 12 months in prison, with six months suspended for five years on condition of good behaviour, leaving him to serve an effective six months.
The National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ) warned stock thieves that they would face the full force of the law.
“The long arm of the law will catch up with them, and the law will be applied to its full extent in dealing with stock thieves,” the NPAZ warned.
In Mutare, the Magistrates’ Court sentenced 29-year-old Brendon Tsakatsa to an effective eight months in prison for assaulting a police officer, theft and transporting passengers for reward using a non-public service vehicle.
The court heard that on July 6, 2026, at about 4pm, police officers spotted Tsakatsa loading passengers into his Mazda Familiar.
When officers approached him, Tsakatsa allegedly assaulted one of them before speeding away with the officer’s button stick.
He was later spotted and arrested by police, while his vehicle was impounded.
Tsakatsa was sentenced to eight months imprisonment for assaulting a police officer, 30 days for theft and a further 30 days for carrying passengers for reward using a non-public service vehicle.
Two months of the sentence were suspended on condition of good behaviour, leaving him to serve an effective eight months.
Meanwhile, a Gweru till operator has been sentenced to community service after defrauding her employer of more than US$15 000 through fictitious point-of-sale transactions.
Cynthia Jongwe, 28, of Jairos Jiri Road, Riverside, Gweru, was convicted of fraud by the Gweru Magistrates’ Court after manipulating Nando’s Gweru POS system to create fictitious swipe transactions.
The court heard that Jongwe, who was employed as a till operator, falsely represented that payments had been processed through the restaurant’s POS machines when no corresponding funds were credited to the terminals.
The fraud was uncovered during an internal audit, which found that there were no records of the purported transactions.
Bank statements obtained after the relevant financial institutions were engaged confirmed that the money had not been received by Nando’s Gweru.
The company suffered a total financial prejudice of US$15,482.75, with nothing recovered.
Jongwe was initially sentenced to 40 months in prison, with five months suspended on condition of good behaviour, 24 months suspended on condition of restitution and 11 months suspended on condition that she performs community service.
She was ultimately ordered to perform community service as part of the sentence.
