Mashudu Netsianda Senior Court Reporter
TWO Gweru men who were convicted by a local magistrate for stealing more than $140,000 worth of cables from Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) in their locality were yesterday each sentenced to an effective 10 years in jail. Farai Dzingai, 26, of Northlea suburb and Matson Tizirai, 34, of Mkoba 12, were convicted by provincial magistrate Phathekile Msipa in February on charges of vandalising and interfering with apparatus for transmission, distribution or supply of electricity in terms of the Electricity Amendment Act.
However, since a lower court has no jurisdiction to pass the sentence, the matter was referred to the High Court in terms of section 226 of the Criminal Law Procedure and Evidence Act. In passing the sentence, Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese yesterday ruled that there were no special circumstances that led the two men to commit the crime.
“You have been properly convicted in terms of the section 60 as read with section 2 (3) of the Electricity Amendment Act. You caused a serious disruption in the distribution and supply of power through your actions. The court is satisfied with the trial proceedings and the circumstances that led to your conviction. There are no special reasons for committing the crime and you are accordingly sentenced to the mandatory 10 years imprisonment as required by the law,” ruled Justice Makonese.
Initially Dzingai and Tizirai who were jointly charged with Gift Kanjanga, Ronald Shumba and Cliff Rufetu were facing 10 counts of violating the provisions of the Electricity Amendment Act. Kanjanga and Shumba were later found not guilty and acquitted while Rufetu is on the run.
Dzingai and Tizirai were acquitted on the other 9 counts by the High Court after the judge noted that they were convicted on the basis of their confessions whose admissibility into evidence was not dealt with as envisaged by section 256 (1) of the Criminal Law Procedure and Evidence Act.
“The conviction of Dzingai and Tizirai in other nine counts is not safe and can’t be supported. Their conviction is in respect of one count which is hereby confirmed,” ruled Justice Makonese.
The State’s case was that between the period extending from December 2012 to January last year, Dzingai, Tizirai and their accomplices stole copper cables in Gweru and surrounding areas belonging to ZETDC worth over $140,000. It was the State’s case that they would illegally switch off electricity before cutting the cables using a side cutter.
In one of the incidents, the copper cable thieves were transported by a one Shumba using a Toyota Prado SUV and were dropped along Indiva Road near Sino Cement site.
They tripped the electrical cables thereby switching off electricity and stole the cables which they rolled and transported to Shumba’s house. They used the same method to steal copper cables in the same area and Zaloba and they were paid $2,000 each by Shumba for the job. The matter came to light in January last year when police received a tip-off from members of the public that Tizirai was looking for a buyer of copper cables hidden at Umsungwe Road.
The court heard that police then laid an ambush and arrested him in the early hours of the following morning and found him in possession of five rolls of copper cables. Tizirai then incriminated his other accomplices. Rufetu is on the run.