Cephas Shava
MWENEZI – A 26-year-old Harare man was last week convicted by magistrate Honest Musiiwa for possession of 2 999 bottles of Broncleer cough syrup and 36 bottles of Stilpane syrup.
Charles Kakomwe, who resides at House Number 472 Mbare, Harare, was convicted on his own plea of guilty for contravening Section 38 (3) of the Medicine and Allied Substances Act Chapter 15:03, ‘found in possession of unregistered medicines’.
Asked by magistrate Musiiwa what he intended to do with the medicine, Kakomwe pointed out that it was destined for sale so that he could earn a living.
Magistrate Musiiwa strongly admonished Kakomwe before sentencing him to 10 months be-hind bars. From the 10 months, four months were conditionally suspended leaving Kakomwe with an effective 6 months to serve.
Led by prosecutor Angelinah Makonya, the State’s case was that on February 28 at around 13: 30 hrs, Kakomwe boarded a commuter omnibus from Beitbridge to Harare. Upon reach-ing a 174 km peg towards Masvingo, at around 1520 hrs, the omnibus was stopped by traffic officers who were manning a roadblock.
Upon conducting a search, police officers arrested Kakomwe after finding him in possession of 2999 x 100 ml bottles of Broncleer syrup and 36 x 100 ml of Stilpane syrup.
The net value of all the syrup amounted to US$7 308.local
