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2 women fined for illegal possession of a gun

News
TWO youthful housewives from Beitbridge were yesterday fined $1 000 each for stealing a gun, which they used to intimidate another woman.

BY REX MPHISA

TWO youthful housewives from Beitbridge were yesterday fined $1 000 each for stealing a gun, which they used to intimidate another woman.

Sandra Wachi and Tendai Hlupo escaped a possible two-year jail term after provincial magistrate Langton Mukwengi found out they had not pointed the gun towards the complainant Grace Siphuma.

“This is a serious offence with a possible two-year jail term. It’s solely because you did not intend to rob or harm the complainant,” Mukwengi said.

He said if the two default on paying the fine, they will serve six months behind bars.

Six months of the one year jail term were suspended on condition that they do not commit a similar offence in the next five years.

In sentencing the two, Mukwengi said they had not wasted the court’s time.

On September 15, the two, who are sisters-in-law, stole an Astro pistol belonging to Wachi’s husband, Tichaona Mukurutse.

They drove to a house in Dulivhadzimo, where they produced the firearm before Siphuma, who they had locked in their car accusing her of dating Wachi’s husband. Hlupo cocked the firearm, but did not aim it towards Siphuma.

They released her after the brief detention.

Asked why she committed the offence, Hlupo, who is married to Wachi’s brother, said she was “supporting” her sister-in-law.

Mukurutse was fined $300 or three months for failing to safely secure his firearm.