The Sunday News
Fairness Moyana in Hwange
A 64-year-old Hwange woman was lucky to escape a custodial sentence after she was arrested for cultivating dagga in her backyard.
An elderly Ailet Phiri of 683 Bagdad, Hwange was pleaded guilty to the offence and was fined ZWL40 000. When asked why she had committed the crime, the elderly woman said she was using it for medicinal purposes.
“Your worship, I know mbanje is illegal in Zimbabwe but I used the plant to prepare a cough mixture for my husband and also to soak my feet since I have high blood pressure (BP). May this court be lenient with me as I did this because of medical reasons,” pleaded Phiri.
Hwange Provincial magistrate, Miss Fungai Dzimiri expressed concern over the elderly woman’s conduct before warning her to stop engaging in illegal activities but focus on being a citizen role model. According the State led by Mrs Kudzanai Mudzamire on 5 April 2022 at around 0830hrs police detectives received information to the effect that Phiri had cultivated dagga at her place of residence.
A raid was conducted at her place and one plant of dagga was found in her garden. Phiri was asked to produce documents which permit her to cultivate dagga and she failed to produce them leading to her arrest. The recovered plant weighed 2kg and was 2.4 metres in height. The plant from Phiri’s garden was forfeited to the State.
In January a Victoria Falls woman was convicted and sentenced to 12 years after she was found in possession of a mbanje drug haul worth ZWL48 million while in February two more women were jailed for contravening Section 157 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23 “Unlawful cultivation of dagga”.
The high-profile discovery of over 480kg of dagga stored in 15x50kg bags belonging to 49-year-old Patricia Ncube shocked the country as speculations were rife as to what caused her to venture into the illicit business.
