Ex-convict Liquid Yonke jailed after spurning community service

A stolen iPhone landed an ex-convict back in prison after he rejected community service, telling the magistrate that cleaning Harare is the city council's job.

Hwete's night out went sideways fast

• Bernard Hwete, a.k.a. Liquid Yonke, got busted over a stolen iPhone.
• He says a woman he met in the nightlife scene actually swiped it.
• Hwete grabbed the phone from her, and everything spiraled.
• His US$40 settlement offer got rejected after she learned its value.

Community service was not his vibe

• Hwete flat-out refused the magistrate's community-service offer.
• His reasoning was that city cleanup is Harare City Council's problem.
• That refusal earned him a 12-month sentence instead.
• Five months of that sentence got suspended.

Prison is severely overcrowded right now

• Harare Central Prison held 2,260 inmates by Tuesday afternoon.
• Its actual capacity is only 1,128 people.
• Hwete had only been free since finishing a drug sentence around March 2024.
• He had personally vowed never to return behind bars.

The outreach effort reached the facility

• Pathway to Reintegration Foundation partnered with the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Service.
• Madzibaba Nigel Dokwani of Johanne Masowe yeChishanu donated supplies.
• Inmates received plastic shoes, toiletries, and soccer balls.
• Hwete was among those who benefited from the initiative.