Former Warriors and Orlando Pirates defender Zvenyika Makonese is now a conductor in South Africa.

 

According to multiple sources, Zvenyika has fallen on hard times and has resorted to luring passengers and loading luggage on cross-border buses.

 

Sources close to the footballer said Makonese was now surviving in menial jobs in order to put food on his table.

 

The decision to work as a tout popularly known as a ‘hwindi’ in Zimbabwe came roughly eight months after Makonese’s wife and kids received donations from Impact for Christ Ministries last year after the couple failed to settle their rental arrears at their Wenchester plush home.

 

In 2018, Zvenyika was fined R3000 by a Beitbridge magistrate after he was convicted of stealing a G-tel A718 cellphone from a police officer.

 

The accuser Melody Masiya had asked one of the bus crews at Beitbridge border post to recharge her phone using the bus phone charger.

 

Makonese pleaded not guilty to a charge of theft when he appeared before resident magistrate Miss Gloria Takundwa but was convicted on the strength of overwhelming evidence.

 

The former Orlando Pirates defender escaped jail after the magistrate slapped him with one month imprisonment with an option of a fine.

 

Prosecuting, Mr Jabulani Mberesi told the court that on an unknown date but in August this year, the police officer who was at Beitbridge Border Post approached one Farai Chinyani, a driver at Ngonweni bus services so that he could recharge her cell phone using the bus phone charger.