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before slaughtering them for meat, have been sentenced to a combined 54 years in prison.

Busani Gumbo (24), of 22551 Cowdray Park, Saul Sagwete (43), 17062 Cowdray Park and Thulani Ngwenya (24) of 17064 also in Cowdray Park, were in the habit of setting traps around farms where they would catch livestock and slaughter them.

The three pleaded guilty to stocktheft when  they appeared before Western Commonage magistrate Mr Richard Ramaboea on Friday.

They were facing two counts of stocktheft each, which they committed at Plot Number 6 in Umguza commercial farming area.

The magistrate sentenced Gumbo, Sagwete and Ngwenya to nine years and three months in prison each for the first count and suspended the three months on condition they restitute the complainant.

On the second count they were also sentenced to nine years and three months in prison with the three months suspended on conditions similar to count one.

Each of the three men will then serve an effective eighteen years in prison.

On the first count, Gumbo, Sagwete and Ngwenya went to Plot 6 where they set up some snares on 24 February.

They caught a heifer belonging to Mr Robson Freeman Ncube, which they slaughtered and went away with the meat.

Mr Ncube had left his herd of cattle in a paddock in the morning and when he went back to round them up at about 4pm he discovered that one of them, a heifer, was missing.

He started looking for it and found a place where it had been slaughtered.

The value of the stolen beast was $300 and nothing was recovered.

On the second count on 12 March, the trio ensnared a calf belonging to Mr Misheck Muleya, also from Umguza.

Gumbo, Sagwete and Ngwenya went to the farm where they used the same modus operandi and caught a calf which they slaughtered near a farm dam and went away with the meat.

The calf was valued at $200 and nothing was recovered.

The matter was reported to the police leading to the arrest of the trio.

The three were represented by Mr Jonathan Ndlovu, of the Legal Resources Centre.

Mr Tatenda Dakwa appeared for the State.