Attempting to give prosecutor R5k bribe earns man one year in jail

Zim Now Writer

A Beitbridge man has been sentenced to a year in jail by magistrate Takudzwa Gwazemba for attempted bribery after he tried to pay R5 000 to a prosecutor to influence the trial of his brothers-in-law.

The brothers-in-law had been arrested for stock theft.

Edmore Makondo, 32, attempted to bribe Beitbridge Area Prosecutor, Tinayeishe Matenga, to influence a lighter sentence for Lloyd Moyo and Thomas Moyo.

Makondo will serve an effective eight months after Gwazemba suspended four months of the sentence on condition that Makondo does not commit a similar offence in five years while the R5 000 bribe money was forfeited to the State.

Prosecutor Ronald Mugwagwa told the court that Makondo went to Matenga’s office and offered her R5000 to influence Lloyd and Thomas’s case.

Matenga told him to hand the money to someone else and she directed him to ZRP Beitbridge Superintendent Philisani Ndebele, who laid a trap at N and R Complex.

Makondo went to the complex and met Ndebele, who was not in uniform and handed him the money.

He was then arrested.