Court orders mental test on David Livingstone kidnapper driver
By Staff Reporter
A Harare magistrate on Saturday ordered some mental examination to be conducted on Samuel Honde, the 60-year-old kombi driver who was Thursday caught driving 25 David Livingstone Primary School pupils over a hundred kilomitres away from their Harare homes in a suspected case of kidnapping.
Honde briefly appeared in court on Saturday facing kidnapping.
Presiding magistrate Letwin Rwodzi remanded him in custody and further ordered the state to “proceed in terms of section 26 of the Mental Health Act”.
Honde, set to return to court on February 2, will be mentally examined by two state doctors.
Prosecutors alleged Honde, who has been driving school pupils on the private transport since 2016, was arrested in Macheke at the 103-kilometre peg along the Harare-Mutare highway after pupils on board were heard yelling after being driven off their routine routes.
Police investigations found the Nissan Caravan carrying the pupils had stopped along the way after running out of fuel.
Prosecutors allege that on 18 January 2024 at around 1PM, Honde, as usual, picked 25 learners – 14 girls and 11 boys – from the Harare primary school.
Instead of driving them to their usual drop-off points in Kuwadzana high density suburb, he drove them out of the city along the highway.
The learners were later reunited with their families after they were first taken to Marondera Provincial Hospital to establish if they had been abused.
