A 21-year-old engineering student hailing from Bulawayo Polytechnic, Lenny Ryan Mupande, has been handed a 35-year prison sentence for his participation in a series of armed robberies across Zimbabwe.
Mupande and his partner in crime, Bezel Chirova, admitted that societal pressures and the allure of mirroring the extravagant lifestyles of celebrities and social media influencers were the primary motivators behind their criminal acts.
Mupande’s criminal activities included stealing ZAR13,390 from Mukuru, two iPhone 7s, $998.66 from Chicken Inn’s drive-through, a cellphone, handcuffs, and a baton stick from Athens Supermarket in Cowdray Park, and $1,850 from a registered money agency, Tottengram Investments.
During the court proceedings, Mupande expressed regret for his actions, attributing his involvement in armed robberies to peer pressure and a desire to emulate the lavish lifestyles of his affluent peers and social media influencers.
He said;
“I committed the crimes because of peer pressure. I was envious of the lives of my peers and the lives of social media influencers. I wanted to be like them, I wanted to mimic their lives, the food they ate, their dressing, and the drinks they enjoyed.”
Chirova, in his defense, maintained that he was coerced by Mupande into participating in these criminal activities.
He claimed that Mupande relentlessly pressured him into being a part of the criminal plan, asserting that it was not his intention to commit these crimes.
“It was not my intention to commit these crimes. It was Mupande who pressured me into committing these crimes. He was persistent in getting me to be part of his plan,” Chirova said.