Malawi College of Medicine student gets  3 years jail for class breaking, theft

A third-year Malawi College of Medicine student has abruptly cut short his medicine studies after a court sentenced him to three years in jail with hard labour for breaking into his own library and stealing two sets of computers.

Public Relations Officer for Blantyre police Augustine Nkhwazi said the Blantyre First Grade magistrate sentenced Mtendere Gwanda on Tuesday.

Nkhwazi said Mtendere broke into the information, communication, technology (ICT) library at the College of Medicine on August 31 and stole two sets of HP computers and one central processing unit (CPU).

“This happened while students were preparing to go for holidays. Management discovered that Mtendere Gwanda broke into the library after all the students had gone on holiday,” said Nkhwazi.

He said the authorities at the college found out that it was Mtendere who stole the items through a cctv footage.

The police publicist said the management did not inform him about the issue when he was on holiday and waited for him until he came back to the campus after the holiday.

“After he was shown the cctv footage, Mtendere confessed to have broken into the library and stole the computers. The management ten called the police,” said Nkhwazi.

In mitigation, Mtendere said he was forced to steal because he had impregnated a fellow college student who needed help.

Passing judgement, First Grade Magistrate Tsoka Banda said Mtendere needed a severe punishment to deter other would be offenders.

Mtendere, 23, hails from Malonje village in chief Malemia’s area in Zomba.