Former Police Commissioner’s wife jailed for kidnapping a 2-month old

Sakhile Tanyanyiwa, wife to former Commissioner Mekia Tanyanyiwa, appeared before the Gweru Magistrates Court today facing charges of kidnapping an infant aged two months.

The 34-year-old was sentenced to on Tuesday afternoon to 18 months imprisonment of which 6 months was suspended for Syears.

The 34-year-old will serve 12 months imprisonment.

It was the state’s case that on the 8th of March 2024, the infant’s mother went to Gweru Provincial
Hospital to collect her baby’s birth record. On her way back she was offered a lift into town by Tanyanyiwa, who was in the company of another man and woman.

The three were in a white Toyota Aqua registration number AFW 6208.

One of the occupants in the vehicle advised her that they would be making a stopover in South View on the way to town. When they got to 6247 South View, the accused person asked the infant’s mother to assist the woman with a “newly born” to disembark from the vehicle.

As she got out of the vehicle the car sped off headed towards the Gweru – Bulawayo highway with the three people and her baby. She reported the matter to the Police.

Tanyanyiwa then took the child home and misrepresented to her husband that she had given birth. Her husband did not believe that the child was a newly born infant and doubted her story all the more when he heard that a baby had been snatched in Gweru.

The former top cop took his wife (the accused) and the baby to CID Gweru.

She was positively identified by the infant’s mother at a formal identification parade.

National Prosecuting Authority release