Gwanda:Two Guyu men have been slapped with nine-year jail terms each after they were convicted of stealing and slaughtering a cow that had strayed across the Zimbabwe-Botswana border.
The pair,Agreement Bhebhe (34) of Kafusi Dam Village and Kepaletso Nyathi (34), also 34, of Kafusi Dip Village in Matabeleland South, appeared before the Gwanda Magistrates’ Court where they were convicted on stock theft charges and handed the mandatory custodial sentences.
The court heard that on 31 May 2026, the two acted in common purpose and targeted a stray brown cow grazing at Shashe grazing lands, along the Zimbabwe-Botswana border. The animal, which bore a Botswana brand mark ADZ5 and ear tag number BW19833411, was slaughtered by the duo, who then shared the carcass between themselves.
Acting on a tip-off from a member of the public, police launched investigations that led them to Nyathi’s homestead, where the brown hide , still bearing the Botswana brand mark and ear tag ,was recovered. A portion of the meat was also recovered from Bhebhe.
A member of the Botswana Police Service was subsequently invited to assist with identification and confirmed that the brand mark and ear-tag code belonged to a Botswana national, cementing the cross-border nature of the theft.
The stolen beast was valued at US$500, and police confirmed that nothing was recovered in monetary terms, as the animal had already been slaughtered and consumed by the time of the arrests.
Stock theft remains a serious criminal offence in Zimbabwe, with courts continuing to hand down stiffer penalties in a bid to deter would-be offenders, particularly along the country’s porous borders where cross-border livestock movement makes such crimes harder to detect.
Police have hailed the swift recovery of the hide and meat, together with the cross-border verification exercise involving Botswana police, as a demonstration of the value of community tip-offs and cooperation between law enforcement agencies in combating stock theft along Zimbabwe’s frontier areas.
