By A Correspondent | Tiisetso Ngulube, a 56-year-old inmate at Gwanda Prison serving a sentence for assault, has been sentenced to an additional year in prison after being found guilty of drug dealing while incarcerated.

Ngulube is being charged alongside Hloniphani Mkwananzi, 42, who is serving time for illegal gold prospecting, and Etsang Mdlongwa, 30, from Hampden Farm, Gwanda.

The two co-defendants have denied the allegations and are awaiting trial.

They will stand trial on June 27.

The trio was charged with unlawful drug dealing at Gwanda Prisons.

On June 13, 2025, while working in a prison garden, Ngulube and Mkwananzi were searched by prison officers upon returning to their cells. During the search, officers found 19 sachets of dagga (0.07kg) and four 200ml bottles of cane spirit hidden in a bucket belonging to Ngulube.

“They confessed and implicated Etsang Mdlongwa as the supplier. They admitted to trading food items they had received from relatives, 4 packs of 2kg sugar and 3 packs of instant porridge for the dagga,” the court heard.

Police detectives later retrieved from Mdlongwa’s home dagga seeds, the exchanged foodstuffs, 22 bottles of cane spirit, and empty sachets similar to those found with the inmates, with an estimated street value of the dagga being ZIG $1,400.00.

Ngulube pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 12 months in prison.