A NOTORIOUS illegal gold panner who was in the habit of terrorising security guards at a Chakari mine has been jailed for an effective seven years.
Own Correspondent
Kadoma magistrate Takudzwa Gwazemba found Talent Mangisi (22) of Delcia Mine in Chakari guilty of robbery, assault, malicious damage to property and illegally prospecting for gold.
Mangisi, who was facing a total of seven counts, was acquitted of one assault charge and another of pointing a firearm.
In handing down judgment, Gwazemba described Mangisi’s actions as callous hence a deterrent sentence was appropriate.
The court heard that on April 24 last year, Mangisi and five accomplices, who are still at large, went to Collen Shaft, Falcon Mine in Chakari, where they disarmed a security guard who had tried to arrest them after he spotted them emerging from a shaft where they were illegally prospecting for gold.
Mangisi mercilessly struck the guard, Marshal Baison, with a machete and injured him.
On May 20 last year, Mangisi bludgeoned Godfrey Mapfumo with an axe after the latter confronted him over his missing gold ore.
- Chamisa under fire over US$120K donation
- Mavhunga puts DeMbare into Chibuku quarterfinals
- Pension funds bet on Cabora Bassa oilfields
- Councils defy govt fire tender directive
Keep Reading
Later that month, he again struck a security guard manning Stella Shaft Mine with a machete and robbed him of his service pistol before he pounced on another guard and got away with another firearm.
Using the same modus operandi, he disarmed two other guards at different mines and stole various amounts of gold ore.
Mangisi was on January 9 this year trapped and arrested by police officers from Chakari after they found him illegally prospecting for gold ore at Gulliver Pit.
