THE 10 pistols smuggled through the Beitbridge Border Post last week in a hearse may not be real and lethal firearms after all, it has emerged.
Police arrested Prisca Kabanda, Mehluli Nkomo and Wellington Ndhlovu and charged them for smuggling the guns.
In applications for bail for the three, the accused’s lawyers Muchihwande Forbes Sithole of Chauke and Associates and Pithey Magumula of Musina Attorneys At Law submitted that the guns were not real.
“The first accused [Kabanda], who is an established businesswoman bought blank guns through one Natasha in South Africa and the latter then engaged the second [Nkomo] and third accused [Ndhlovu] to transport goods. She paid R4 000 for transport and possible duty of guns and reflectors. She cannot be said to have smuggled when she was in Harare. She didn’t know the goods would be brought by these parlour guys,” Sithole said before magistrate Takudzwa Gwazemba.
He also said Kabanda did not have any knowledge of the banned cough syrup Bron Cleer, two boxes of which were found on the hearse and now form part of the charge.
Magumula submitted that police were aware these were not real guns hence their preferred charge of smuggling as opposed to possession of illegal firearms.
The pistols in State papers are described as Retay F29 84 FS 9mm calibre P.A.K pistols which a quick stroll on reliable internet search engines shows they are not real guns.
Ordinary people at Beitbridge believe the latest expose showed authorities at the border including the police may have acted in an old-fashioned manner which may have caused unnecessary pain on the suspects.
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Police escorted the hearse to Chiredzi for a controlled delivery of the pistols after which they arrested Kabanda whose lawyer Sithole maintained she was an innocent victim.
