![6401 Sibongile Nhlapo and her grandson Kamogelo Nhlapo[5 months old] at her house in Natalspruit,Nhlapo section today after she went to katlehong Noth clinic and received 2x 500g NAN Perlargon milk instead of six. Picture: Nigel Sibanda.](https://image-prod.iol.co.za/16x9/1600/6401-Sibongile-Nhlapo-and-her-grandson-Kamogelo-Nhlapo-5-months-old-at-her-house-in-Natalspruit-Nhlapo-section-today-after-she-went-to-katlehong-Noth-clinic-and-received-2x-500g-NAN-Perlargon-milk-instead-of-six-Picture-Nigel-Sibanda?source=https://xlibris.public.prod.oc.inl.infomaker.io:8443/opencontent/objects/529bb147-97c6-5fcb-a6f1-4c0c81f1f069)
Pretoria - “The evil spirit inside me made me do it.” This was the excuse of a mother of three from Mapulaneng in Mpumalanga, after she was caught red-handed with four tins of Nestlé NAN baby milk formula stuffed under her dress.
Zodwa Mthembu, a hawker in Bushbuckridge, was sentenced in the lower court to a fine of R20 000 or five years in jail, of which half was suspended for five years. The woman thus had to pay a fine of R10 000.
The matter came on review before the High Court in Pretoria, as the senior magistrate who went through the sentences at his court, discovered that the sentence imposed exceeded the three-year jurisdiction of the magistrate’s court regarding common law crimes.
The woman earlier testified in the lower court that she went shopping on March 28 last year, at a Boxer store. She packed several items into her shopping basket, including the four tins of milk, valued at R747.96.
When she neared the till, she suddenly discovered that she did not have enough money for all her groceries. Mthembu said the “evil spirit inside me” took over and she stuffed the tins under her clothes.
She was arrested by the security as she tried to leave the shop. She later, in apologising to the court shortly before sentencing, said: “Something got into me that day. I cannot explain what.”
The National Prosecuting Authority (NPA), upon questioning by the high court on whether the sentence was appropriate, was adamant that the R20 000 fine was fair.
Judge Elizabeth Kubushi was told that it is common knowledge that NAN milk is a commodity regularly targeted by syndicates.
The judge was also referred to the brazen manner in which the woman hid the four tins under her clothes and the fact that she paid her R10 000 fine “with ease”.
It further emerged that Mthembu had 24 prior convictions for theft and the sentences imposed on her in the past, did not seem to deter her from stealing.
The prosecution said the only way in which the woman would learn is if she was slapped with a heavy sentence.
According to the State, her case should have been heard by a regional court magistrate who had a higher jurisdiction and that the she should have been declared a habitual criminal.
Pretoria News