Yeukai Karengezeka — A maid from Nyatsime, Chitungwiza, who stole US$107 000 from her Chinese employer and shared it with two police officers, has been sentenced to seven years in jail.
Marvellous Mapfumo (34) was initially sentenced to nine years imprisonment by Harare magistrate, Mrs Ethel Chichera.
However, two years were suspended conditionally as Mapfumo told the court that she had no capacity to restitute the complainant.
Mapfumo's accomplices Hebert Chikwiza Kurebgwaseka and Paul Kondo are stationed at Central Criminal Bureau in Harare but are currently on the run.
Prosecutor Mr Takudzwa Mutyavaviri told the court that Mr Sisi Lin, an accountant at Tian-tian Fresh Mart Supermarket in Highlands, would keep money from his workplace in a drawer in his bedroom.
Mr Sisi would leave the door unlocked to allow Mapfumo to clean his room. Mapfumo noticed that the money was brought in daily and informed her boyfriend Kurebgwaseka who advised her to let the money accumulate before they could finally steal it.
On May 30, Mapfumo stole US$107 000 from Mr Sisi.
At around 5pm, on the same day, Mapfumo informed Kurebgwaseka that she had stolen the cash and wanted him and his friend to pick her up at the house.
They then drove to a lodge in Waterfalls where they met Kondo and shared the loot.
The two police officers shared US$60 000 between themselves, while Mapfumo got US$47 000.
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Kurebgwaseka went on to take Mapfumo's share for safe-keeping saying he suspected that she was being tracked by detectives.
The court heard that Kondo later took Mapfumo to his girlfriend's house in Sunningdale, where he restricted her from talking to anyone, while he organised to take her to South Africa to evade arrest.
From May 30 to June 11, Mapfumo was staying with Kondo's girlfriend and she found her a house to rent in Glen View 3 and bought her some property.
On June 12, 2024, detectives from CID Nkulumane, Bulawayo, received information from three sources that Mapfumo had boarded a truck to South Africa via Botswana. The detectives acted on the information and arrested her.
After her arrest near Bulawayo while she was in a truck on her way out of the country, she was brought back to CID Highlands, Harare, where she implicated Kurebgwaseka and Kondo as her accomplices.
The property and a Honda Fit belonging to Kondo which was used to commit the crime have since been seized.
Total money stolen is US$107 000 and only US$1 800 was recovered through the property that had been bought by the accused persons.
