Two men from Rushinga, Tawanda Sam, 37, and Gerald Musanhi, 31, have each been sentenced to nine years’ imprisonment by the Mt Darwin Magistrates' Court after being convicted of stock theft involving the slaughter of a villager’s ox.
The duo, both from Rondo Village, were found guilty of stealing two oxen belonging to Gertrude Kufandirori of Pfara Village on November 3, 2025.
The court heard that Kufandirori had released her two oxen—one black and the other brown with a broken right horn—to graze unattended. When she returned later that afternoon, both animals were missing.
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The breakthrough came a month later on December 4, when villager Lancelot Chinhende received a tip-off about suspicious meat hanging in a tree. He and other villagers investigated and encountered Tawanda Sam nearby.
Under questioning, Sam initially denied involvement but later confessed that he and Musanhi had stolen and slaughtered the cattle. The pair led villagers to the slaughter site, where several 90kg sacks of meat, along with the skin, legs, and head of one ox, were recovered and seized as evidence.
In a fortunate turn, the second ox—the brown one with the broken horn—was later found alive by Kufandirori’s husband near the slaughter site.
The court ruled that the men acted with intent to permanently deprive the complainant of her livestock and handed down the mandatory minimum sentence for stock theft: nine years’ imprisonment each.
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