BY MIRIAM MANGWAYA A-MWENEZI farmer has been arraigned before the courts for allegedly stealing stray cattle at a neighbouring farm.
The accused, Freeman Dube, appeared before Mwenezi magistrate Honest Musiiwa facing stock theft charges after he allegedly stole two beasts belonging to Joel Chitondo, a farmer in the Mateke area of Mwenezi in Masvingo.
It is the State’s case that in 2017, Chitondo lost his four cows, and despite advising all his neighbours, including the accused, he failed to locate the beasts.
In 2021, Dube had a fallout with his brother, Andrew who was his foreman at his farm. This resulted in Andrew revealing that the accused had stolen the complainant’s cattle.
Andrew also revealed that some of the cattle were at the accused’s farm.
The complainant, in the company of Mwenezi police then went to the accused’s farm where they recovered one cow which still bore the complainant’s brand mark.
The said cow had since given birth to a calf which bore the accused’s tag and his mobile particulars.
But through his lawyer Charles Ndlovu of Ndlovu and Hwacha Legal Practitioners, Dube denied the charges arguing that the complaint’s farm fence was damaged, and his cattle ended up straying into other farms.
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