Brits – A 24-year-old man, described in the Brits Magistrate's Court, as a "troublesome child", was sentenced to six months in prison on Monday for stealing his grandmother's electric stove.
Nxobile Valentine Mziyane of Tornado, south of Brits, pleaded guilty to a charge of theft.
He told the court that he waited for his grandmother, aged 82, to sleep before sneaking into her house in the early hours of the morning to steal her prized black Defy four- plate stove valued at R2 800, and selling it for R1 000.
He added that he used his key as he was staying with his grandmother and took out the stove.
"I am very sorry for what I have done, I am pleading to the court to give me at least three months in jail," he said.
His uncle Moses Khumalo, whom he called to plead with the court for a lesser sentence, shocked him when he told the court Mziyane was a troublesome child.
"I want the court to give him six months in jail, his grandmother had enough of him, he is always stealing from her, even tenants are complaining about him."
Khumalo told the court that the stove was recovered in good working conditions, after the police were called.