TWO members of the neighbourhood watch committee based in Sinamakoma area in Binga were on Monday slapped with a 12-month jail term each for extortion and assaulting a villager whom they accused of beating up one of their own.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
The court heard that Vhinisayi Mandivengerei (38) and Brighton Mwinde (23), both of Sinamakoma in Lisulu, assaulted Brighton Moyaka (60) and demanded two goats before they could release him. The two men were convicted of the charge despite their plea of not guilty when they appeared before Binga resident magistrate Stephen Ndlovu.
Public prosecutor David Shiku told the court that on October 21 this year, the pair met Moyaka at Leonard Moyo’s home and handcuffed him over allegations of assaulting Mandivengerei and growing mbanje (marijuana).
They took Moyaka to his home where they forced him to show them where he kept his mbanje. The pair later took turns to assault him with a stick before extorting two goats from him.
Moyaka eventually complied and gave them the goats. The pair slaughtered one of the goats and shared the meat.
Moyaka then made a report to the police, leading to the pair’s arrest. Police recovered two kilogrammes of the goat meat from Mandivengerei and 1,8kg from Mwinde. The other live goat was recovered from Mwinde’s home.
In sentencing them, the court rapped the two community security officers for abuse of office.
