Serial Thief Jailed
18 October 2019
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By A Correspondent- Having served for more than two years in prison for stealing, Kelvin Mbuyiswa (24) seems to have learnt nothing inside. 

He appears to have tried to perfect his thieving skills hoping never to get caught but the long arm of the law caught up with him.

Mbuyiswa, an informal trader at a stall along 6th Avenue, was arrested and shipped back to prison after stealing a cellphone from a shopper at the corner of Lobengula Street and Third Avenue last month.

Narrating his ordeal, the complainant said at around 2pm he was waiting to cross the road when Mbuyiswa approached him from the front and pushed him. 

“He accused me of pushing him and started demanding an apology from me. I didn’t want any misunderstanding so I just apologised.

“But he kept on walking all around me still demanding an apology before he finally walked away,” said the victim.

As he tried to recompose himself, another trader who had been watching the whole scene told him that Mbuyiswa had searched him and stolen his phone. 

“I hadn’t felt him search me at that moment so I searched my pockets and found nothing,” said the victim.

A security guard at the Kurai Coaches advised him to report the case to police officers who were patrolling nearby because he knew Mbuyiswa as a serial thief. 

After reporting the case to the officers, they tracked Mbuyiswa to his stall where they recovered the phone whose Econet simcard he had already removed.

Meanwhile, State files showed that Mbuyiswa had served 24 months and another eight months on different occasions for stealing cellphones.

However, pleading guilty before Bulawayo magistrate Lesigo Ngwenya, Mbuyiswa appealed to the prosecution to be lenient with him as he claimed his eight-month-old sick son was the one that pushed him to look for fast money.

“I am a very lenient person, but how do I let you go when you have served two times before for the same offence. 

“It means this is your job. If I let you go then you will go back to your job and prey on your next victim. Go inside and reflect on your actions and think about your son,” said the magistrate. 

He sentenced Mbuyiswa to six months imprisonment.

-BMetro