Wandale’s land grabbing case: 21 people handed 12 months suspended sentence

Blantyre Magistrate Court has given suspended sentence to the 21residents of Thyolo who were convicted on three counts of misdemeanor, unauthorized use of land and threatening to use violence.

The 21 were convicted on Wednesday after they pleaded guilty to the counts following their arrest on 1 September this year when they were caught distributing land at Conforzi Plantations led by Peoples Land Organisation (PLO) leader Vincent Wandale.

Senior resident magistrate Thokozani Soko said the first and second offences of consipiracy to commit a misdemeanour and criminal trespass attract a punishement of one-month imprisonment each.

While the case of unauthorised use of land attracts a sentence of one year.

She said the sentences were to run concurrently which means they could stay in jail for one year.

Soko said she did not want to impose custodial sentence because the Thyolo land grabbers were first offenders and that they had shown remorse on their conduct by pleading guilty at the earliest opportunity.

Soko ordered the convict not to get involved in any other offence for a year and they should ensure they bring peace in their area.

She also ordered the convicts to pay K5000 cash each and to provide surety to the court for the one year suspended sentence.

Meanwhile the case will resume today where Soko will examine the surety provided by the convicts.