A 61-year-old mother and her two sons found guilty of stealing 80 bags of Mophane worm (phane) worth P300 000, between May and June this year, breathed a sigh of relief when Francistown magistrate court wholly suspended their three-year prison sentence for the same period.
Chikadzi Makhulela who resides in Gerald Estates together with 21-year-old Lebani Makhulela and Kewagamang Makhulela aged 30 escaped custodial sentence after 60 bags of the loot valued at P250 000 were recovered.
The trio also agreed to forfeit P10 000 found in their possession, surrender a Honda Fit motor vehicle bought from the proceeds of the 20 bags of phane they sold and also to repay the outstanding P53 000 in six months.
However, Makhulela’s sons will each get five strokes after being certified medically fit.
The Makhulela’s were sentenced this Monday together with their accomplices, Keitumetse Ndlovu and Trust Mhodi from Zimbabwe. The two Zimbabwean nationals also got off with a suspended sentence.
When mitigating for a lenient sentence, the accused disclosed that the phane theft was masterminded by 21-year-old Lebani and carried out in two batches. Sometime in May the Makhulelas and Ndlovu stole 10 bags from Nametso Mandendemuka’s home in Gerald Estates who was once their employer and is a popular phane trader.
“The first accused (Lebani) stands before the court as the principal architect. He candidly admitted to masterminding the operation, from planning, executing the theft, to disposing the stolen consignment. He confirmed receiving P80 000 from the proceeds of the selling the stolen phane bags. Funds he used for personal benefit, including the purchase of a Honda Fit vehicle,” cited Magistrate Magetse in sentencing.
The magistrate continued, “notably Lebani further revealed he used P30 000 from the proceeds to engage in online betting playing the aviator game.”
The mother is said to have only benefitted P1 200 from the P300 000 phane consignment while her elder son Kewagangmang only got P1 400. The older sibling openly told the court that “the tender” belonged to his younger brother and trusted him to come up with the means to compensate Mandendemuka.
Meanwhile, Mhodi the hired transporter of the stolen loot, told the court he dropped the bags of phane at Francistown bus rank and loaded it on Zimbabwe bound buses. This is how the missing 20 bags vanished.
Principal Magistrate Magetse concluded, “when phane is stolen it is not just food, it is a family’s bread and butter, a season blood sweat and sunburn. The concern is a woman who was left P300 000 poorer. That is who the sentence must speak to.”
