By Simbarashe Sithole
A 29-YEAR-OLD Concession man was recently nabbed and taken to the Bindura Magistrates’ Courts on Thursday, facing carjacking and robbery charges after he allegedly stole two cars inside 48 hours and dumped them in separate places.
Nomatter Manuwere (29) of National Railways, Concession, pleaded not guilty to the charges when he appeared before magistrate Christopher Maturure, who remanded him in custody to Monday next week.
The State, led by Tariro Janhi, alleges that on June 8, Manuwere was drinking beer with Enos Mhunduru at Chipadze Shopping Centre, Bindura, Manuwere placed his bag into Mhunduru’s Mercedes-Benz C180, registration number ACJ7797, which was parked at the shopping centre.
Manuwere later asked for car keys from the complainant on the pretext that he wanted to collect some money from his bag.
The accused got into the car and drove off without Mhunduru’s permission, but was involved in an accident a few kilometres away from the shopping centre. Manuwere dumped the vehicle at the accident scene.
The following day, he went to Glendale 007 club where he met Richard Muyengwa, who had been assaulted by fellow patrons.
Manuwere introduced himself to Muyengwa as an off-duty police officer.
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They went to Muyengwa’s VW Jetta V5, registration number ABE4057. Since Muyengwa was injured and could not drive, he gave Manuwere the car keys and drove to the police station.
Upon arrival, Muyengwa and Manuwere were referred back to patrol police officers who were on duty at the club.
While Muyengwa was narrating his ordeal to the police, Manuwere drove off with his car.
The car developed a mechanical fault around 3am in Concession and Manuwere approached a local mechanic, Aleck Katoro, who towed it to his garage.
The mechanic got suspicious after Manuwere failed to come back the following day and filed a police report, leading to the recovery of the vehicle.
However, Manuwere, who was also on the police wanted list for robbing Tafadzwa Nyapfumbi (29) at Amatola Farm, Mazowe, of his gold ore and cash on February 19 last year, was tracked down and arrested.
