Harare, (New Ziana) – A man frantically searching for his missing goat ended up buying its carcass from the thief, the Hwange Magistrates’ court heard on Tuesday.
The court ordered the goat thief, Shylock Zulu (28) of Themba Ndlovu Homestead, Mashala Village, Hwange to pay the owner of the animal, Thabani Sibanda ZWG 1 057 in compensation, or alternatively spend three months behind bars for stock theft.
According to the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ), the court heard that Zulu stole the black and white male goat belonging to Thabani Sibanda from the village’s grazing area and slaughtered it.
Zulu proceeded to Sibanda’s homestead where he sold the meat to the latter for US$15, pretending it was from a bush buck.
Sibanda, however, became suspicious that the meat could be from his goat which went missing, leading to Zulu’s arrest. Zulu was initially sentenced to six months imprisonment, but the court conditionally suspended three months of the sentence for five years and the remainder on condition that he compensated Sibanda to the tune of ZWG$1057.
Separately on the same day, the NPAZ said the Hwange Magistrates’ Court sentenced a Lupane man to an effective six months for physically abusing his wife after accusing her of infidelity. The man was initially sentenced to 12 months for two counts of physical abuse of his wife after she failed to explain her whereabouts on Christmas eve but the court conditionally suspended half of the sentence for five years.
The NPAZ said the first of the two incidents occurred on last December 27 when a domestic dispute arose at their homestead over the complaint’s whereabouts on Christmas eve. During the altercation, the man assaulted the wife with open hands and fists, inflicting injuries to her face, forcing her to flee and seek refuge at her aunt’s homestead within the same village.
On January 2, the man visited the complainant at her aunt’s homestead and sought forgiveness and the complainant was permitted to return to their shared home with the man. However, upon arrival at home, the man again accused the complainant of infidelity, armed himself with a whip and assaulted her multiple times on her body.
New Ziana
