Duo caged 9 years for robbing cab driver of Honda ...

Duo caged 9 years for robbing cab driver of Honda Fit

Zim Now Writer

Two Beitbridge men who robbed a taxi driver they had hired of valuables, including a cell phone and a Honda Fit all worth US$4100 have been jailed for an effective nine years each.

Pardon Chamunorwa (30) and Edson Takwanisa Hardson (29), who were convicted on their own plea of guilt, stripped the complainant of his belongings and the car on October 22 after hiring him for transportation from Dulivhadzimu suburb to the Beitbridge Border Post.

Regional magistrate Innocent Bepura on Thursday conditionally set aside one year each for 5 years.

For the State, Claudius Karinga told the court that on October 22 this year at around 3am, the two men hired the complainant, who was driving a black Honda Fit, to take them to the border.

He said they agreed on a service fee of R20.

Along the way, Chamunorwa pretended to be talking to someone who was in the low-density suburb and wanted to see both men.

He then asked the taxi driver to divert the route via the low-density suburb, promising to top up the fee.

While in the suburb, the court heard, when the driver was negotiating an intersection, Hardson who was sitting behind him, strangled the man with a rope on the neck, ordering him to stop the vehicle.

Chamunorwa drew an okapi knife from his pocket and put it on the man’s neck. They then removed him from the driver’s seat.

Chamunorwa drove the vehicle towards One Independence Barracks, where they dumped the man and went away.

A report was then made to the police who recovered the vehicle at Nyika Growth Point in Bikita, Masvingo.

The two were then arrested following intensive investigations.