TellZim Reporter
On October 6, 2023, two gold miners who resides at Chuma homestead in Marowa village under chief Chikwanda, Masvingo appeared in Masvingo magistrate court before magistrate Ivy Jaona with the charge of stealing company property and firearm.
The duo were remanded in custody for continuation of trial on October 10, 2023.
The state led by Tinotenda Makoti told the court that in July 2023, the accused persons Naison Chizema (22) and Muratile Matutu (26) employed at Golden hill mine in Mashava hatched a plan to steal the company’s firearm which was in a storeroom.
Matutu went into the storeroom and took the smith and wesson revolver, four x emex emulsion explosives, seven x fuse codes and a lighter code whilst Chizema remained outside as sentry.
They went on to hide the loot in a pit near the fence of the premise.
After knocking off duty, Chizema took to his residence where he hid them at the nearby bush under a rock.
The following day the complainant Ragin Kassim (46) noticed that the firearm and some company’s property was missing, at around 0200hours and reported the matter to the police.
Detectives from CID Masvingo received a tip off that Chizema was in possession of a firearm at his place of residence.
Acting upon the received information, detectives approached Chizema and informed him about the nature of their inquiry.
He then led detectives to the nearby bush where he had hidden the revolver and other property that was missing and everything recovered.
Chizema implicated Matutu who was arrested that same day in Mashava.