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Sukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
TWO elderly women have appeared separately before a Plumtree magistrate facing charges of possessing mbanje.
They both pleaded not guilty but the magistrate, Livard Philemon, convicted them due to overwhelming evidence.Aliva Runhindi, 45, of New Lobengula suburb in Bulawayo, will spend the next nine months in prison after she was caught with about a kilogramme of the drug in her handbag.

She was arrested while selling the dagga at Ndiweni Business Centre in Bulilima District.

She denied selling the illicit drug saying that she had been asked by a friend to deliver it to an unnamed person.

Runhindi told the court she had agreed to deliver the package in a bid to raise money for her family.

Prosecuting, Elisha Mazorodze said on December 12 detectives received a tip off that Runhindi was selling dagga at the business centre.

He said police who were patrolling the area approached Runhindi and requested to search her luggage.

“Police detectives intercepted Runhindi at the business centre and recovered loose dagga weighing 1,1kg hidden in her handbag resulting in her immediate arrest,” said Mazorodze.

Philemon sentenced her to 12 months in prison but suspended three months for five years on condition that she doesn’t commit an offence   of a similar nature.

In the other case, Christina Moyo, 50, of Mangwe was sentenced to perform 210 hours of community service for selling dagga from her homestead in Boolie Resettlement area.

Mazorodze said police recovered 13 twists of dagga and some loose mbanje hidden in Moyo’s wardrobe.

“Police detectives received information that Moyo was selling dagga from her homestead. They searched her home and found dagga which was packed in a plastic bag stashed in her wardrobe,” he said.

Moyo told the court that she was trying to raise money to look after her four children as she was an unemployed widow.

“It’s difficult to fend for your family if you’re an unemployed and uneducated woman staying in the rural areas. I was just trying to make ends meet just like what any other person who has a family would do,” said Moyo.

Philemon sentenced her to nine months imprisonment of which three months were suspended for five years on condition that she does not commit an offence of the same nature.

The remaining six months were suspended on condition that she performs 210 hours of community service at Lyverd Primary School.

Philemon lashed out at the two women for acting in a manner he described as unsuitable for respectable women.

He told the two women that they  were setting a bad example for their children.