Zimbabweans plead not guilty to bank robbery charges

TWO suspected members of an alleged gang of Zimbabwean bank robbers both pleaded not guilty to an armed robbery charge in the Windhoek Magistrate’s Court on Friday.

In an appearance before Magistrate Elsie Schickerling, Zimbabweans Bakani Dube and Mthulishi Sibanda, also known as Happy, gave their plea on a charge of robbery with aggravating circumstances in which they are accused of having robbed the Klein Windhoek branch of Standard Bank Namibia of N$197 543,97 on March 9 last year. Dube and Sibanda both denied the charge, which they initially faced with two fellow Zimbabweans.One of their co-accused, Itai Mashamba, escaped from Police custody in July last year, after he had been admitted to a Windhoek hospital to be treated for tuberculosis.The other co-accused, Plan Ndebele, died in late November last year, when he drowned while trying to cross the Okavango River near Bagani after he, Sibanda and four other prisoners had staged an escape from Windhoek Central Prison.Mashamba is still at large, Public Prosecutor Taodago Gaweseb told Magistrate Schickerling before the two remaining suspects were asked to plead.The court was previously informed that Mashamba had been traced in Zimbabwe, and that efforts were to be made to extradite him to Namibia to continue with the prosecution against him.Dube’s defence lawyer, Boris Isaacks, told the Magistrate that his client’s defence is that on the day of the robbery in Klein Windhoek he was at Gobabis, and that he therefore was not present at the heist.He had never met his co-accused before the robbery, Isaacks said.Sibanda, who pleaded without being represented by a lawyer, did not give a plea explanation to the court.The case against Dube and Sibanda was postponed to January 9 for the Prosecutor General to make a decision on the prosecution against them.Dube and Sibanda both denied the charge, which they initially faced with two fellow Zimbabweans.One of their co-accused, Itai Mashamba, escaped from Police custody in July last year, after he had been admitted to a Windhoek hospital to be treated for tuberculosis.The other co-accused, Plan Ndebele, died in late November last year, when he drowned while trying to cross the Okavango River near Bagani after he, Sibanda and four other prisoners had staged an escape from Windhoek Central Prison.Mashamba is still at large, Public Prosecutor Taodago Gaweseb told Magistrate Schickerling before the two remaining suspects were asked to plead.The court was previously informed that Mashamba had been traced in Zimbabwe, and that efforts were to be made to extradite him to Namibia to continue with the prosecution against him.Dube’s defence lawyer, Boris Isaacks, told the Magistrate that his client’s defence is that on the day of the robbery in Klein Windhoek he was at Gobabis, and that he therefore was not present at the heist.He had never met his co-accused before the robbery, Isaacks said.Sibanda, who pleaded without being represented by a lawyer, did not give a plea explanation to the court.The case against Dube and Sibanda was postponed to January 9 for the Prosecutor General to make a decision on the prosecution against them.