High Court quashes lenient sentence, adds nine more years for Chinhoyi stock thieves

📅 Published: August 26, 2025

📰 Source: newzimbabwe

Curated by AllZimNews.com

It is wrong to bundle together offences that attract a minimum mandatory sentence as one for sentencing,” Justice Muzofa said in the review judgment delivered on 15 August.

The two were initially sentenced to 11 years in prison, with three years suspended, after being convicted of stealing a cow and calf, two oxen, and a goat from three separate complainants between July and August this year.

But the High Court ruled the approach “defeated the purpose of section 114(4)” of the Criminal Law Code, which compels judges to impose a minimum of nine years for each count involving cattle unless special circumstances exist. “In this case, the accused were convicted of three separate counts of stock theft, each with its own complainant.

The magistrate should have passed a separate sentence for each count, as the legislature intended,” Justice Muzofa said.

The court also faulted the magistrate for treating a goat as a bovine, noting that goats do not fall under the definition of animals that trigger mandatory minimums. “A goat is neither a bovine nor an equine,” Justice Muzofa stressed. “The trial court was supposed to be guided by subsection (f) of section 114 of the Criminal Code. ” For the first count of stealing a cow and calf, they were jailed for nine years each.

For oxen theft, they were jailed for nine years again For goat theft, six months wholly suspended for five years.

The nine-year sentences for counts one and two will run concurrently, leaving the pair with an effective nine-year jail term. 🔗

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