A 61-year-old Beit Bridge man, charged with bestiality after having sex with a donkey as punishment for grazing in his field, was fined Z$4 million or two months in jail.

The accused, Tsakisi Nare of Zezani village outside Beit Bridge, initially told the local magistrate that he had committed the crime to punish the donkey for straying into his field and subsequently destroying his crops.

Nare was convicted after pleading guilty to contravening a section of the Criminal Law Reform and Codification Act (bestiality) by a local magistrate, Mrs Rukoni Siti.

The court was told that, on 12 November at around 18:00, Nare spotted some donkeys which had strayed into his field. The court heard that, on driving the animals out of the field, Nare drove away the rest and left one female donkey. He tied the donkey to a nearby tree and became intimate with it. He was, however, caught in the act by another local villager who was looking for his donkeys.