After
hearing the parties' legal practitioners, we dismissed the appeal against
sentence and indicated that our reasons will follow.
These
are they.
The
background facts of the case are the following. The appellant left Zimbabwe
sometime in January 2010 for South Africa where he was offered accommodation by
the complainant. He abused the trust bestowed on him by the complainant.
Instead
of showing gratitude, he decided to steal from the complainant when the latter
had gone to work. He was left alone in the complainant's residence in
Johannesburg. During the absence of the complainant, the appellant hired a
motor vehicle and loaded the stolen property which included, inter alia, LCD 37
inch colour television set, a Sony Home Theatre, a Dell computer, a Samsung
computer, a Samsung “Tower” computer and Sony digital video recorder. The
appellant came back to Zimbabwe with the stolen property. The complainant
returned to her place of abode (in Johannesburg) and discovered that the
appellant had disappeared with the said stolen property. She made a report to
the South African Police. Whilst the latter were still investigating, one
Sikhulekile Khumalo, who is related to both the appellant and the complainant,
and who had been to Zimbabwe, told the complainant that she had seen her stolen
property at the appellant's residence in Bulawayo. The complainant and
Sikhulekile Khumalo travelled all the way from Johannesburg to Bulawayo to
report the matter to the Zimbabwe Republic Police. The latter arrested the
appellant and recovered the entire stolen property. The total value of the stolen property is
US$2,200=.
The
appellant pleaded guilty to the charge before a Bulawayo Magistrate….,. He was
convicted.
