A MAKONDE man, Tangai Gambiza, and a self-styled prophet,
Chamunorwa Ndofura, were last week spared from the hangman’s noose, but were
slapped with life imprisonment each after being convicted of killing the
former’s brother, Talent, and burning his corpse.
Tangai hired Ndofura to help him kill his 22-year-old
brother, whom he alleged had been pestering him to share the $40 monthly
rentals he had been collecting from their late parent’s house in Budiriro 5,
Harare.
Last week, Tangai and Ndofura appeared before High Court judge,
Justice Amie Tsanga and were both convicted of killing Talent with actual
intent before being sentenced to life imprisonment.
According to the evidence presented in court, the
cold-blooded murder occurred on December 10, 2015 in Makonde district in Mashonaland
West province.
The court heard sometime in December 2015, Talent, who was
staying at Village 31 Kanyati B, consulted Ndofura at his homestead seeking
spiritual healing and was taken to a shrine where he was given a poisoned
concoction.
Unbeknown to Talent, his brother, Tangai, had earlier
arranged with Ndofura to lace his drink with poison, in the name of spiritual
healing, upon being consulted.
After taking the concoction, Talent started vomiting and he
went to a nearby clinic, but was joined by Ndofura, who persuaded him to report
that he had taken mangoes laced with a tobacco pesticide without washing his
hands.
While at Makonde Health Centre, Talent was attended to by
Ephraim Nyoni and he narrated to him the pesticide story, as Ndofura was
present.
After Ndofura had left, Talent spilled the beans and
reported that Ndofura had given him a concoction. When Ndofura visited him the
next day to check on his condition, he discovered he had recovered.
Ndofura then proceeded to call Tangai, who came and sought
his brother’s discharge. While on their way home, the court heard, the trio
took a footpath through the bush, where Tangai picked up a log and hit his
brother several times knocking him unconscious.
Realising Talent had died, the two left the body and
proceeded home for the night.
The following day, the two men returned to the corpse
carrying petrol, torched the body and took the remains to the top of a nearby
mountain where they threw them into a cave.
After the incident, the two went to Makonde Police Station,
where they filed a missing persons report, claiming the now-deceased had fled
to an unknown destination.
The missing person report spread throughout the community
and Zanu PF youth district chairperson, Itai Chikazamba then approached Tangai
with the intention of mobilising party youth to search the mountains, but
during the interview, Tangai disclosed he had killed his brother with Ndofura’s
help.
Chikazamba then reported the matter to the police, leading
to the duo’s arrest.
Prosecutor Henry Muringani appeared for the State. Newsday
0 comments:
Post a Comment