Man Drives off to Gokwe After Stealing a Kukura Kurerwa Bus in Mbare!

Harare | A man drives off to Gokwe after stealing a bus in Mbare and claims he didn’t have bus fare.

A Gokwe man, 29, was taken into custody after he drove a $600,000 bus that he had stolen from Mbare to his remote home.

At the Mbare Bus Terminus, Phibion Mavhondo, who purportedly wanted to go to Gokwe but didn’t have bus money, discovered the bus parked with its engine running.

On Wednesday, October 18, he appeared before regional magistrate Jacqueline Pratt in Harare and entered a plea of guilty to theft of a motor vehicle.

But the judge changed Mavhondo’s plea to not guilty when he stated he had no desire to permanently deprive the owner of the Kukura Kurerwa bus.

Christopher Dube (26), who says he was picked up along Bulawayo Road and offered a ride to Gokwe, is also accused jointly with him. Dube claims he was unaware that the bus was stolen.

According to The Herald, Mavhondo informed the judge that he didn’t have enough transportation money to go to Gokwe, so he chose to take the bus.

He reported that he had located the ignition keys and verified that there was sufficient fuel to get him to Gokwe.

According to reports, Mavhondo stated that he intended to leave the bus near his destination so that the owner could retrieve the keys.

The prosecutor, Lawrence Phiri, informed the court that, on May 02, 2023, the Kukura Kurerwa bus company’s shunting driver left his bus parked at the Mbare bus terminus with the ignition keys in the ignition and the engine running.

According to Phiri, Mavhondo drove the bus after he and Dube boarded it. Mavhondo used to be a business driver.

It is also claimed that later that evening, Mavhondo left Dube in the bus and parked at Masoro in Gokwe before visiting his lover.

After following down the bus with two other people, the owner discovered it parked around midnight and took Dube into custody.

Dube then accused Mavhondo, who was taken into custody.

The bus’s worth had decreased at the time of retrieval due to damage from the lengthy drive and the absence of the spare wheel.

Dube refuted the accusation, telling the judge that he was merely given a lift by Mavhondo and was unaware that the car had been reported stolen.

According to him, Mavhondo explicitly stated that he only wanted one person to go to Gokwe. In his evidence, Mavhondo affirmed this.