A 19-year-old Bulawayo man who stole two vehicles from the same church yard on separate Sundays in attempts to visit his girlfriend, crashing both cars along the way, appeared before a regional magistrate on Wednesday as prosecutors pushed for a custodial sentence, describing him as a youthful offender who had started at the deep end.
Jurio Junior Nyathi of Tshabalala suburb entered a guilty plea before Bulawayo Regional Magistrate Lungile Ncube on four counts covering two charges of motor vehicle theft and two counts of driving without a valid licence. Sentencing was deferred to Wednesday.
Prosecutor Sehliselo Khumalo told the court that on January 18, Nyathi broke into a light blue Honda Fit belonging to teacher Moses Mataruse, which had been parked and locked inside the church yard while its owner attended a Sunday service. He used an unidentified object to gain entry, drove toward his girlfriend’s home and was involved in a road accident. The damaged vehicle, valued at 4,000 United States dollars, was left abandoned at the roadside.
In a near identical sequence of events the following Sunday morning shortly after 8 a.m., Nyathi returned to the same premises and took another Honda Fit belonging to prison officer Khumbuzile Nyoni. He again drove toward his girlfriend, this time in the direction of Gwabalanda suburb, but lost control of the vehicle, which left the road and struck a tree. He fled the scene on foot.
Police investigations linked both incidents to Nyathi, who confessed to stealing and wrecking both vehicles after his arrest. Addressing the court in mitigation, he told the magistrate he had wanted to deliver a birthday surprise to his girlfriend and needed transport to carry a gift. “I wanted to surprise her on her special day. Unfortunately, I was involved in accidents on both occasions. I now realise what I did was wrong and ask the court for forgiveness,” he said.
Khumalo rejected the mitigation as insufficient, telling the court that both thefts involved calculated methods to unlock and start the vehicles without detection, pointing to premeditation rather than impulse. Both owners, the court heard, suffered significant financial losses.
Zimbabwe’s urban centres have long battled motor vehicle theft, with the Honda Fit model consistently among the most targeted cars in Harare and Bulawayo, according to Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) records. Nyathi now awaits the magistrate’s ruling on whether he will serve prison time.
