Zvikomborero Parafini
EMBATTLED Harare model, Tumelo Nare, was yesterday sentenced to 15 months after being convicted of cocaine possession at a city hotel.
Nare and her accomplice, Precious Bango, were convicted after a full trial by Harare magistrate Ruth Moyo, who ruled that they had no defence to proffer as they were recorded on CCTV running around the hotel naked.
The cocaine was found in their hotel room.
The State, represented by Nomsa Kangara, proved that the two, together with one Jason Leeroy Pamhidzai, who is at large, checked into the hotel in the first week of February.
On February 5 at around 6.30pm, Nare and Bango started behaving weirdly, moving around the hotel corridors naked.
Delegates holding a meeting at the hotel called police who promptly responded.
They searched their hotel room and recovered the cocaine, and arrested the two, while Pamhidzai fled with all his belongings.
A preliminary test was run on the recovered substance and it was confirmed to be 0.2g of cocaine with a street value of $16 000 at the time.
In their defence, Nare and Bango told the court that it was Pamhidzai who was sniffing the cocaine.
Nare said she suffers from epilepsy and had seizures, and started bleeding from the nose. She said Bango then ran around the corridors seeking help, while Pamhidzai fled.