 Fatsani Zinga was convicted of housebreaking contrary to section 309 of the Penal Code
and also of theft contrary to section 278 of the Penal Code. He was sentenced to two years
imprisonment with hard labour for the housebreaking and fifteen months imprisonment
with hard labour for the theft. He pleaded guilty to the charges. The convict is a young man
aged twenty-four years. He broke into the house of the complainant, who is his father, Mr
Sosten Zinga, and stole a wheelbarrow, 75 kilograms of fertiliser, a blanket, a bucket and
bananas. All the property was recovered except the fertiliser.
2. In mitigation, the convict stated that he committed these offences because his father made
him work for him but never paid him for his services.
3. The magistrate rightly dismissed what the convict stated in mitigation as carrying no weight
for purposes of lessening the convict’s sentence, for, the magistrate remarked that the
convict never reported his grievance to any authority, and further, that the convict had
waited until the complainant was away before he broke into his house. 