The Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Court has sentenced a mini-bus driver to two years imprisonment with hard labour or pay a fine of 5 hundred thousand Kwacha for causing death by reckless driving.

The driver, Osman Bamusi, was found guilty of hitting and killing a male pedestrian, Stanford Phiri, as he was approaching the bus stage at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre.

The victim was rushed to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital where he was pronounced dead upon arrival.

Postmortem revealed that he died of severe head injuries and rib fractures.

Appearing before the Blantyre Chief Resident Magistrate Viva Nyimba, Osman Bamusi was found guilty of causing death by reckless driving, contrary to section 126 of the Road Traffic Act.

In his submissions, state prosecutor Sub-Inspector Shadreck Jonathan Wisiki of Blantyre Police pleaded with the court to pass a stiffer punishment to the accused on grounds that he is a careless driver, whose actions put lives of passengers at risk and even led to the death of an innocent pedestrian.

He added salt to the wound by revealing that Bamusi also killed four people in another accident in Chikwawa in September 2017.

Passing the sentence, Chief Resident Magistrate Viva Nyimba corroborated with submissions from the state and proceeded to convict and sentence Bamusi to pay a K500,000 fine or serve 2 years imprisonment with hard labour.

The magistrate also ordered that the accused’s driving license should be surrendered to Road Traffic Directorate.

He also demanded that the convict should not be found driving for a period of one year, and that at the expiry of one year, he must go for a driving course to renew his driving license.