The Sunday News
TWO brothers from Mangwe stole sugar from an apostolic church they go to in a bid to raise money for food.
Arnold Moyo (24) and Anele Moyo (21) told the court that they intended to replace the sugar once they sold their loot and realised profits.
Arnold and Anele, who both go to the General Apostolic Foundation Church in Mangwe, were employed as builders at the church premises.
Prosecuting, Ms Jane Phiri said the pair on 30 July requested for keys in order to collect their tools but they went on to steal sugar and rice in the church storeroom.
“Katazile Ndebele, who is employed as the church caretaker, gave Arnold and Anele the keys to the storeroom for them to collect their tools around 7pm.
“In the process they also took 10 bags of 2kg sugar, three bags of 12,5kg of sugar, one bag of 5kg sugar and 10kg of rice,” she said.
On the following day Ndebele realised that the groceries were missing and informed church leaders. Arnold and Anele were questioned and they admitted to stealing the groceries which they had stashed at their homestead.
They stole goods worth $70 and goods worth $34 were recovered.
Arnold and Anele were sentenced to five months imprisonment of which three months were suspended for five years on condition that they do not within the period commit an offence of the same nature. The remaining two months were set aside on condition that they each perform 70 hours of community service at Empandeni Clinic.
“We took the groceries but we never intended to do so on a permanent basis. Our plans were to sell the sugar and the rice, realise profit and then replace the sugar. We just wanted to raise a little money for food.
“We noticed that these grocery items had been lying idle for a long time without being used and we thought of putting them to use. Our intention was to raise a little money for our family. We could have even given some of the money to the church for offering,” said Arnold as he begged for the court’s leniency.
His young brother Anele said they came up with the idea to steal from the church after realising that they were getting peanuts from the job they were doing at the church.
They appeared before Plumtree magistrate, Mr Gideon Ruvetsa, yesterday.
