Harare regional magistrate Temba Kuwanda yesterday slapped convicted housemaid Euna Tsekwete, who stole $700 000 from her employer in Belvedere, Harare, last year, with a 13-year jail term.
CHARLES LAITON
Tsekwete will, however, serve an effective eight years after Kuwanda suspended five years on condition of good behaviour.
The magistrate further ordered Tsekwete to surrender $8 500 which was recovered from her and house number 198B Wadzanai suburb in Shamva or its market value to the complainant Jamil Farogh.
Tsekwete, who was represented by Harare lawyer Nicholas Chikono, was initially charged alongside her workmates, Rebecca Kawe and Sheila Nyandoro, who were last week acquitted for lack of incriminating evidence.
All the three maids were arrested sometime in April last year over the theft after information was leaked to the police through Tsekwete’s relatives in Shamva.
Farogh lost the staggering amount when the three maids allegedly discovered wads of cash in his cabinet and stole it while he was away in Gweru visiting relatives.
In his judgment, however, Kuwanda said there was overwhelming evidence linking only Tsekwete to the theft following her indications to the police that led to the recovery of the hidden cash in a field at Nyikayaramba Village in Madziwa.
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In respect of Tsekwete’s co-accused, Kawe and Nyandoro, the magistrate said there was no incriminating evidence linking the pair to the offence since the property which was recovered from them, through indications, might have been bought by their husbands who were said to have dealt in diamonds at one point in time.
Charges against the trio arose in April last year, when, according to the State, Kawe allegedly discovered the money in a kitchen drawer. She is said to have approached fellow maids Tsekwete and Nyandoro and informed them about the cash, which they subsequently stole and shared equally.
Evidence led in court suggested that the three resigned from employment within a month after allegedly stealing the cash.
The State had alleged the maids used the bounty to buy residential stands and vehicles which they registered in other people’s names, but the magistrate in his judgment singled out Tsekwete as guilty.
