Zimbabwe: High Court Quashes Lenient Sentence, Adds Nine More Years for Chinhoyi Stock Thieves

The High Court has overturned a Chinhoyi magistrate's sentence against two convicted stock thieves, ruling that the lower court misdirected itself by handing down a "globular sentence" instead of applying Zimbabwe's mandatory minimums.

Justices of appeal Philds Muzofa and Rodgers Manyangadze found that Reason Chimanja and Felix Faron Chango, who pleaded guilty to three counts of stock theft, should have received separate sentences for each offence, with cattle theft carrying a mandatory nine-year term.

The two had been jailed for 11 years each for the offences.

"The magistrate misdirected herself. It is wrong to bundle together offences that attract a minimum mandatory sentence as one for sentencing," Justice Muzofa said in the review judgment delivered on 15 August.

The two were initially sentenced to 11 years in prison, with three years suspended, after being convicted of stealing a cow and calf, two oxen, and a goat from three separate complainants between July and August this year.

But the High Court ruled the approach "defeated the purpose of section 114(4)" of the Criminal Law Code, which compels judges to impose a minimum of nine years for each count involving cattle unless special circumstances exist.

"In this case, the accused were convicted of three separate counts of stock theft, each with its own complainant. The magistrate should have passed a separate sentence for each count, as the legislature intended," Justice Muzofa said.

The court also faulted the magistrate for treating a goat as a bovine, noting that goats do not fall under the definition of animals that trigger mandatory minimums.

"A goat is neither a bovine nor an equine," Justice Muzofa stressed. "The trial court was supposed to be guided by subsection (f) of section 114 of the Criminal Code."

For the first count of stealing a cow and calf, they were jailed for nine years each.

For oxen theft, they were jailed for nine years again

For goat theft, six months wholly suspended for five years.

The nine-year sentences for counts one and two will run concurrently, leaving the pair with an effective nine-year jail term.

Read the original article on New Zimbabwe.