Moffat Mungazi
Lovemore Kadzura
Weekender Reporter
LITTLE known political outfit, People’s Unity Part (PUP), is in the eye of a storm after it allegedly stole a beast to feed its supporters at a rally held in Makoni South Constituency last year.
The Herbert Chamutsa-led party allegedly sent party youths to buy a beast worth US$250 for the rally, but Taurai “Samutoko” Muswere from the security department allegedly went on to steal a beast from Bernard Mbiriri worth US$700.
Muswere was arrested and convicted for stock theft. He is now serving the mandatory nine years for the offence.
Chamutsa allegedly offered to compensate Mbiriri US$500 for the loss, but later left for South Africa without honouring the promise.
This prompted Mbiriri to drag the outfit’s coordinator, Emily Ngwena to Chief Makoni’s community court.
Ngwena is alleged to have given Muswere the money to buy the beast.
Ngwena also gave the youths the nod to slaughter the beast which was not cleared by the police.
Mbiriri was demanding US$700 for his stolen beast, and US$600 for costs incurred in pursuing the matter since October last year.
“On October 13, 2024, I received a report that one of my beasts was missing. My herd boy looked for it for two days, but could not locate it. On the second day, a police officer came with Muswere who was admitting stealing the beast.
“My herd boy confirmed that they were missing one of the beasts. He was shown the head of the beast, and positively identified it. Police said they had only recovered the head, and three hooves, and they were being kept at Headman Nyamombe’s place.
“Muswere was taken to court where he was convicted and sentenced to nine years for stock theft. During the court appearances, I met Emily Ngwena, and was informed that she is the one who gave Muswere US$250 to buy a beast. Emily and her party president begged for forgiveness, and pledged to compensate me for my beast they had feasted at their function.
“I told them that my beast was valued between US$700 and US$800, and the party leader said they can afford US$500 and offered to pay the money at the end of November 2024 after travelling back to South Africa. I did not entertain him as I was so angry. That was the last time I heard from the party leader.
“I reported Ngwena to Headman Nyamombe’s court, and I was told how my beast was stolen and moved for over 16km during the night and slaughtered at her homestead. For six consecutive times, Ngwena absconded attending the hearing at the headman’s court, and I was incurring a lot of costs travelling from Harare to attend the court sessions. This forced the headman to refer the case to this court,” said Mbiriri.
Emily frantically tried to exonerate herself from the case, saying the party also lost US$250, and Mbiriri should not sue her or the party since the perpetrator was convicted of the offence.
“We had a rally and senior party leaders gave us money to buy a beast. We informed the headman of the rally, and told him that we were going to slaughter a beast. We gave Muswere US$250 to look for the beast, and instructed him to bring the beast on October 13, 2024 which was the day of the rally.
“On October 12, I inquired from him if he had found the beast to buy, and he informed me that he had not, and had opted to bring his own beast. I gathered youths to slaughter the beast during the night, but he did not bring it. He only brought it the following morning. I asked for the beast’s papers, and he said he would bring his stock card the following day. The beast was slaughtered.
“I ordered other youths to keep the beast’s head and hooves since I was not satisfied with Muswere’s explanation. I also informed the headmen, and Headman Nyamombe’s aides who were present that we had slaughtered a beast which we were not sure of its owner.
“After the rally, I lied to Muswere that we wanted to go to Rusape to audit our expenditure for the rally. On our way, I was communicating with police officers at Nyazura Police Station that I had a cattle rustling suspect I wanted to hand over to them. I handed Muswere over to the police, and Mbiriri was not aware that the suspect was already in police custody where he had admitted to the offence, and led the police for indications at his kraal.
“The party leadership attempted to engage Mbiriri over the issue, but he was not forthcoming. I am surprised that Mbiriri dragged me to this court, but I am the one who helped him to locate the thief,” Ngwena told the court.
Sabhuku Mafunga who is also Headman Nyamombe’s aide, said the beast was stolen and slaughtered with the blessings of Ngwena. He said as the party coordinator, she authorised the slaughtering of the beast which had no proper documents at night and also ordered the de-horning of the head. The hide was not located few hours after slaughter. He added that Ngwena was saved jail by police who turned her into a witness
“We were invited as part of Headman Nyamombe’s court and we found other
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three village headmen already at the rally. They informed us that there was an issue of a beast that was slaughtered during the night. They had informed Ngwena not to slaughter it before they saw the beast and they left Ngwena’s homestead around 12am before the beast was delivered and ordered her to slaughter the beast in their presence.
“The beast was delivered during the night and slaughtered. We went to Ngwena’s homestead where she was refusing to show other village heads the head of the beast and we had to use force. We only found the head and three hooves. The hide was missing, the head was de-horned and the horns were missing.
“The party youths told us that they were instructed to de-horn the head by Ngwena. The party leadership including Ngwena agreed to compensate Mbiriri, but later reneged on their promise. Emily was not arrested by the police since they turned her into a State witness against Muswere,” said Sabhuku Mafunga.
In its ruling, the court found PUP, Chamutsa and Ngwena guilty of participating and aiding in the theft of Mbiriri’s beast. The court ordered them to pay Mbiriri US$700 for his beast and US$600 for costs.
“The party, its leader and coordinator all had a role in the theft of the beast. Ngwena was actually an accomplice in the beast theft. We are giving them two weeks to reimburse Mbiriri. We cannot have political parties that steal from people. Failure to do so, this court will attach Chamutsa’s property at his Magamba house in Rusape and Ngwena’s homestead in Nyamombe Village,” ruled Chief Makoni.
