By Judith Sibanda
Three Victoria Falls men have appeared in court after they allegedly stole 56 car batteries.
Muziwandile Sibanda (31), Smiley Ncube (30) and Innocent Sibindi (28) appeared before Victoria Falls resident magistrate Lindiwe Maphosa on Thursday charged with theft.
On their first appearance, they pleaded guilty to the offence which was initially on two counts but as their case was being heard, officers from the criminal investigating office came with 54 other counts after more people came forward to report that they had their car batteries stolen.
The state alleges that on July 30 the trio went to Family of God church along Kingsway road and stole a Mazda Bongo battery before smashing another Toyota Mark X window with a metal hammer and removed the battery which they loaded into a blue Honda Fit vehicle registered as AEO 6421 which they were using as a get-away vehicle.
The three were arrested the following day on separate occasions after police got a tip-off that they were selling Exide batteries in Lupinyu and around town to various individuals.
The buyers who were listed as court witnesses said they had bought Exide batteries from the three for US$40 and US$35 and they matched with those that had been stolen on July 30.
The investigating officers requested further detention to carry out more investigations. Once the investigations have beencompleted, they will re-appear in court again, Maphosa said.
