A BULAWAYO woman stunned a magistrate’s court in the city when she claimed that she had used about R8000 remitted by her UK-based boss to consult an inyanga in a bid to fend-off the employer’s pending deportation.

Constance Sibanda who was employed to look after a house in Mzilikazi pleaded not guilty when she appeared in court accused of stealing from her employer.

The court heard that between October 2008 and January 2010 Sibanda received amounts totalling R8760 which she was supposed to use to pay rates for the property but instead converted the money to her own use.

In her statement to the police she claimed to have used the money to solve her employer’s problems.

When quizzed by the magistrate what she had done with the money, Sibanda said she had used it to pay an inyanga on the orders of her employer.

She claimed the employer wanted to fend-off pending deportation from the United Kingdom.

However the magistrate convicted her and passed a sentence of six months in prison.