State Media|BULAWAYO magistrate Mr Shepherd Munjanja yesterday ordered the suspension of community service for Chief Felix Nhlanhlayamangwe Ndiweni’s 23 subjects, pending their appeal against conviction and sentence at the High Court.
Chief Ndiweni (54) was last month jointly convicted with his 23 subjects for destroying property belonging to a local villager, Mr Fetti Mbele, in Ntabazinduna by Bulawayo magistrate Ms Gladmore Mushove.
They were each sentenced to 24 months in jail of which six months were suspended for five years on condition that they do not within that period commit a similar offence.
Chief Ndiweni was sentenced to an effective 18 months in jail while his subjects had their remaining 18 months wholly suspended on condition that they perform 525 hours of community service at local schools and clinics.
They then approached the High Court challenging their conviction and sentence.
Chief Ndiweni is out on $500 bail pending appeal.
The decision to suspend community service by Magistrate Munjanja follows an application by the accused persons’ lawyer, Mr Dumisani Dube of Mathonsi Ncube Law Chambers. The magistrate said there was no prejudice in suspending the villagers’ sentences, part of which had already been served. “The suspension of the applicants’ sentence is in response to an appeal against conviction and sentence made by their lawyer at the High Court. If they continue to perform community service then it means the appeal would cease to be effective,” ruled Mr Munjanja.
According to court papers, Mr Mbele was banished from the village by Chief Ndiweni after his wife Ms Nonkangelo Mpengesi was allegedly caught having sex with another villager.
In July 2017, Chief Ndiweni ruled that Mr Mbele and his “adulterous” wife should be banished from Sifelani village, saying “prostitution” was not to be tolerated in his area.
On July 26 in 2017 at around 4PM, Mr Mbele and his wife arrived from Bulawayo to find some villagers standing outside their homestead.
Kimpton Sibanda (72), a village head and two other villagers, claimed they were ordered by Chief Ndiweni to destroy Mbele’s garden fence and kraal.
Sibanda instructed the villagers to destroy the fence and kraal. At around 5PM, Chief Ndiweni arrived and ordered the villagers to continue destroying Mr Mbele’s fence and kraal. The order followed Mr Mbele’s alleged defiance of Chief Ndiweni’s verdict to divorce his wife.
Chief Ndiweni had given a ruling that Mr Mbele’s wife should vacate her husband’s home but she did not comply with the order since they had resolved the matter as a couple, prompting the Chief to banish the couple from his area.