A 54-year-old Zimbabwean truck driver has been convicted in South Africa and ordered to pay a R10 million fine or serve five years in prison after illicit cigarettes worth more than R10.4 million were found in his tanker at the Musina-Beitbridge border post.

The Hawks, South Africa’s Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation, said Godknows Mangani Demanyundo was sentenced by the Giyani Magistrate’s Court. He was arrested on 10 June 2025. Hawks spokesperson Colonel Avele Fumba said the case began when a South African Revenue Service (SARS) cargo analyst spotted suspicious images during routine scanning and alerted a team leader, who notified the police.

A joint physical inspection by South African Police Service and Border Management Authority officials then found 500 master boxes, seven cartons and six packets of Chelsea cigarettes, valued at more than R10.4 million, according to the Hawks. Local Criminal Record Centre members documented the evidence before the arrest, and the Hawks took over the investigation.

Besides the fine, the court ordered the cigarettes, the truck and the tanker trailer used to carry them forfeited to the state. Demanyundo was also declared unfit to possess a firearm.

The Hawks’ Limpopo head, Major General Gobz Govender, praised the agencies involved and said an arrest is not the end of an investigation, adding that the Hawks would follow the evidence wherever it led.

The conviction was reported by IOL, The Herald and NewZimbabwe.com, the last of which carried a report from The Citizen. The Herald said the driver was convicted on Tuesday; IOL reported that the Hawks confirmed the conviction on Wednesday.

Sources: Hawks statement as reported by IOL, The Herald and NewZimbabwe.com (citing The Citizen).

A trial date has been set in the case of Dr Fortune Gomo, the Zimbabwean scientist killed in Dundee, Scotland, in July last year.

A 21-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to murdering Dr Gomo, 39, and to a separate charge of having a knife in a public place, according to The Scotsman and Voice Online. Prosecutors allege she was repeatedly struck on the body with a knife in Dundee on 5 July 2025. They say the attack was aggravated by prejudice relating to race, nationality or ethnicity. The accused is not named here because the two outlets spell his name differently.

Both outlets report that the trial is due to begin in January 2028 at the High Court in Dundee.

Dr Gomo was an environmental and water resources scientist who had recently started work with Scottish Water. Both outlets say she held a PhD from the University of Dundee. The Scotsman reports she had studied in both Scotland and Zimbabwe, graduating from the National University of Science and Technology in Zimbabwe; it cites social media for her academic record.

The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty, and no evidence has yet been tested in court.

Sources: The Scotsman; Voice Online.

Zimbabwean constitutional lawyer Brian Kagoro was removed from a Nairobi-bound flight in Addis Ababa on Tuesday and prevented from reboarding, despite a Kenyan High Court order protecting his right to enter the country.

The Pan African Lawyers Union said Kagoro, 51, had boarded the flight when security personnel took him off the aircraft and questioned him. He was then barred from reboarding, making it impossible to complete the journey.

“The circumstances under which he was removed from the aircraft, questioned and prevented from continuing his journey are deeply concerning, particularly given the existing court order directing that he be granted entry into Kenya,” PALU said. It added that his legal team was seeking urgent clarification from the authorities and taking steps to enforce the order.

Kagoro, who is Africa Director at the Open Society Foundations and a co-founder of the Crisis in Zimbabwe Coalition, was detained for more than ten hours at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on 22 February this year, declared persona non grata and flown back to Johannesburg. Kenyan officials accused him of involvement in a foreign-funded network seeking to coordinate anti-government protests. He denied the allegations, saying he had travelled for a family event and a speaking engagement.

PALU, the East Africa Law Society, the Law Society of Kenya and the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists filed a constitutional petition challenging the deportation on due process and rule-of-law grounds. In June the Constitutional and Human Rights Division of the High Court issued conservatory orders protecting Kagoro against further arbitrary denial of entry, pending determination of that petition. Tuesday’s trip was made under that order.

Kenyan civil society organisations had planned to receive him at the airport in a public show of solidarity, with a press briefing to follow. Both were cancelled.

More than 20 civil society organisations, professional associations and business figures have since demanded that the government comply with the order and account publicly for what happened, including whether Kenyan officials asked for or caused his removal in Addis Ababa.

“A court order binds every public officer and state agency. Immigration or national security powers cannot lawfully be used, directly or indirectly, to defeat it,” their statement said. They noted the incident fell on the International Day of Democracy.

Sources: Nairobi News; The Eastleigh Voice; Nehanda Radio; Kenyans.co.ke; statement by the Pan African Lawyers Union.