BULAWAYO - A man from Ntabazinduna has been slapped with a mandatory nine-year jail term for stealing his employer’s beast.
Hama Chishanhu, 26, appeared before Bulawayo magistrate Takunda Witness Mtetwa facing charges of stock theft.
It is alleged that on December 7 last year Chishanhu, who is employed as a cattle herder at Jack Fitshane’s homestead, stole a penned brown heifer and slaughtered it.
He went on to skin the beast and cut it into portions before hiding it in his bedroom.
The meat was later discovered by a fellow villager who alerted the police leading to Chishanhu’s arrest.
In a similar case, a man from Umguza has been hauled before the courts for stealing his neighbour’s cow.
Sibangani Mpofu’s case was heard by Bulawayo magistrate Crispen James Mberewere who remanded him in custody up to January 28.
It is the State’s case that on January 12 Mpofu found Baptistina Malefu Sausoles’s heifer in his field and hit it on the head with a big stone until it died.
Mpofu left the lifeless animal on the spot and went back later to skin it.
The court heard that Mpofu was arrested by police when he tried to sell the meat.
He was remanded in custody to 28 January for sentence.
