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George Maponga Masvingo Bureau
A senior court interpreter at the Masvingo Magistrates’ Court has been fined $100 or alternatively 20 days behind bars after she was convicted of stealing a workmate’s cellphone.

Antoneta Mugadza (35) was also slapped with a wholly suspended three-month sentence by Masvingo provincial magistrate Mr Langton Ndokera last week after she pleaded guilty to stealing Tsitsi Chikwanda’s cellphone, a Samsung Grand Prime.
Chikwanda(37) is also a court interpreter at the same station.

Mugadza, who has been a court interpreter for 10 years, tendered her resignation before Mr Ndokera sentenced her.
On February 1 this year, Chikwanda left her Samsung phone in her office while attending to her duties and Mugadza sneaked into the office and stole it.

When Chikwanda realised that her phone was missing, she made a report to the police, leading to investigations.
Police traced the phone with the help of mobile phone services providers, resulting in its recovery in Harare’s Glen Norah C suburb.

Nellia Witness, who was found with the phone, said she had bought it from Goodlove Motsi, who implicated Mugadza.
Efforts by Chikwanda to withdraw the charges against Mugadza following the recovery of her phone and citing that the pair had worked together for a decade proved futile after Mr Ndokera insisted that Mugadza should stand trial.
Mr Edmund Mapope prosecuted.