Africa-Press – Zimbabwe. An armed robber who recently admitted to 35 counts of armed robbery committed along Seke Road had been using stolen identity for the past 25 years.
According to The Sunday Mail, the notorious criminal, Norman Sithole was arrested after robbing a motorist of US$250 and a cellphone.
Sithole only confessed moments before he was sentenced by magistrate Batanai Madzingira that the name appearing on the State papers was not his.
He had been using Anceloti Musengi’s national identity card for two and a half decades.
Musengi lost his ID in April 1998 at the Mbare Musika bus terminus while travelling to his rural home in Chirumhanzu, Midlands Province, for the Easter holidays.
Musengi, then aged 23, lost his wallet, which contained his national identity card, bank and medical aid cards, as well as cash as he jostled with other travellers to get a seat on a “Chicken Bus” to Midlands.
He only got to replace his ID card when he returned to Harare.
Musengi, who is employed by a renowned local financial institution, was to recover his original national identity card a fortnight ago after Sithole’s confession at the Mbare Magistrates’ Court.
Sithole did not state how he obtained Musengi’s ID card but confirmed that he got the identification particulars at Mbare Musika in 1998.
This led prosecutor Janet Mlambo to institute further investigations, which established that the convict was indeed telling the truth.
Sithole was subsequently slapped with a 40-year jail term. However, the court suspended three years and nine months on condition of good behaviour.
Another five years and five months were suspended on condition that Sithole pay back all the people he had robbed.
This means Sithole may serve a prison term of 30 years and 10 months.
Sithole’s reign of terror along Seke Road ended recently when he was arrested in Harare after robbing a local mechanic, Maurice Musiiwa, of US$250 and a cellphone.
On the day of the robbery, at around 8 PM, Musiiwa was driving a Mercedes-Benz C240 from Harare’s city centre to Chitungwiza along Seke Road.
As he slowed down to negotiate a pothole near the Delport turn-off, Sithole’s alleged accomplice, Walter Mapfumo, pretended to stumble and fall in front of his car, forcing him to stop.
Musiiwa disembarked from the car to find out what was happening and Mapfumo jumped to his feet and used a knife to force him to surrender all his belongings.
Sithole and Mapfumo then robbed Musiiwa of an Itel cellphone and a wallet with US$250.
Police investigations led to the recovery of an Itel S23, which had been sold to Mavis Nyambala, who later led police to Sithole.
Sithole then implicated Mapfumo as his accomplice. Mapfumo denied the charges, and is on remand awaiting trial.
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