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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
THE High Court has dismissed an appeal against conviction and sentence by a Zvishavane gang member who was jailed for two years for attacking a hooker and her client before robbing them of $270.

The judge said the gangster should count himself lucky for having been jailed for two years for attacking the complainant in the matter with a machete.

McLeod Makava, who was in the company of four others, accosted the complainant at a house in Mandava Township in Zvishavane where he was being entertained by a prostitute he had hired at a night club.

Makava, who pretended to be the woman’s husband and assaulted the man using machetes, was last year in March convicted of robbery and sentenced to two years in jail.

Six months were conditionally suspended for five years.

The fate of Makava’s colleagues was not stated in court.

Makava, through his lawyers, Mutendi and Shumba Legal Practitioners, filed an appeal at the Bulawayo High Court challenging his conviction and sentence citing the state as the respondent.

He said there was misdirection on the part of the magistrate who jailed him.

Makava said there was no evidence to sustain his conviction and argued that at the very least he should have been convicted of theft.

In his ruling, Justice Nicholas Mathonsi said the appeal lacked merit.

“In fact, the appellant must consider himself lucky that the court suspended a previously suspended sentence of five months, which was suspended on condition of good behaviour on June 21, 2013. This current conviction was a breach of the suspension and for that reason the five months should have been brought into effect,” said the judge.

Justice Mathonsi described Makava as an unrepentant criminal who was not entitled to community service.

“By his own admission the appellant was present at the house where the complainant was deprived of his money. He placed himself at the scene of the crime where the complainant was subjected to a gang attack”.

Justice Mathonsi dismissed Makava’s story that he only got to the scene and participated by stealing the complainant’s money.

The court heard that in the early hours of November 28 in 2014, Makava and his accomplices went to the complainant’s house in Mandava Township where he was being entertained by a prostitute he had hired at a night club.

Makava pretended to be the husband of the hooker and the gang assaulted the complainant with machetes and fists. The gang took $20 from the prostitute which the complainant had just paid. They also robbed the woman’s client of $250 before they fled from the scene leaving the complainant to lick wounds and nursing a swollen left eye.-@mashnets