A ZIMBABWEAN woman has been slapped with a three-month suspended jail term for irregular entry into Botswana and fined 100 pula for illegal gold panning in the neighbouring country.
According to reports from Botswana, Lucadia Ndlovu (38) was arrested on October 16 this year after entering abandoned mines in the Matsiloje area in the company of one Zwelithini Ncube.
The two pleaded guilty to the charges of illegal mining and entering the country through an irregular entry point when they appeared before Francistown Magistrates Court recently.
In her plea of guilty, Ndlovu begged for mercy saying she left her home in Tsholotsho driven by desperation for survival.
“I left my children alone in Zimbabwe,” she said.
Indications are that her remorsefulness and plea of guilty without wasting the court’s time earned her the court’s leniency. The court then convicted her on both counts, slapping her with a wholly suspended three-month jail term and P100 fine for her gold mining activities.
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However, since she was broke and could not pay the fine she was jailed one month as an option for failure to pay fine.
Meanwhile, her 33-year-old accomplice who appeared before the same court as a second time offender was slapped with six-months jail term for irregular entry into Botswana and fined P100 for illegal mining.
Ncube, who failed to pay the fine for illegal mining, was slapped with an additional month that saw him being jailed for seven months.
In mitigation, Ncube tried the same trick that his accomplice had used, claiming that he too left his child back home in Zimbabwe.