A gold panner (17) from Cowdray Park suburb was brutally
hacked to death with a machete at a night club in Bulawayo.
Bornwell Ndlovu allegedly attacked Talent Sibanda with the
machete a few metres from Mahweba Night Club, situated near Cowdray Park
Terminus at about 8:30PM on Saturday.
MDC Alliance’s Alderman Collet Ndlovu owns the club and the
alleged assailant is his nephew. A mob
allegedly meted out instant justice on Ndlovu before handing him over to the
police.
Ald Ndlovu is the MDC Alliance candidate for Ward 28
by-elections set for Saturday. One of Ndlovu’s employees who declined to be
named said the gold panner was a nuisance when he arrived at the night club on
Saturday.
“He came to the club already drunk, bought a snooker token
and instead of playing the game, he put the balls into a satchel. A scuffle
ensued with the security officer who took the balls back. The security guard
evicted him from the night club as he was already drunk,” said the worker.
“We are told that another fight started when he was outside
the premises and he was hacked to death.”
Talent’s aunt Ms Lydia Phuthi said the family was
devastated by the boy’s death.
Ms Phuthi said Talent had arrived on Saturday morning from
his panning activities only to be killed hours later.
“We don’t know what really transpired because we were not
at scene. But his brother who was with him said he was attacked with a machete.
They managed to identify his attacker. His brother and his friends on Saturday
evening just told us that Talent had been attacked and an ambulance had taken
him to hospital. Initially we did not think his life could have been in
danger,” said Ms Phuthi, as she struggled to hold back tears.
“At about 4AM six police officers knocked at our door
informing us that we should go to Mpilo Central Hospital as Talent had died
while being ferried to the hospital.”
She said they found Talent’s bloodied body at the mortuary
showing that he had been savagely attacked.
Ms Phuthi said on Sunday morning they visited the crime
scene at the terminus where they found a pool of dry blood showing that he bled
extensively. She said they endured the trauma of cleaning up the blood.
Ald Ndlovu, who was conducting campaigns in Cowdray Park’s
Esigodweni area, said some people were using the murder for political mileage.
“There are a lot of untruths in this. Some people say he
was stabbed in my bar which is not true. Plus Bornwell is my brother’s son. He
doesn’t even stay with me. He is an adult responsible for his actions. I can’t
be responsible for what my relatives do, I’ve others who support Zanu-PF and
others who support MDC-T led by Khupe. Their
actions should not define my political path. So I don’t think what happened
should impact my campaign,” said Ald Ndlovu.
A resident said yesterday a group of gold panners attacked
patrons at Ald Ndlovu’s night club and disrupted the aspiring councillor’s
campaign team which was set to conduct a road show.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Chief Inspector Precious
Simango said Talent’s relatives handed Ndlovu over to police on Sunday
afternoon after beating him up.
“Police officers proceeded to the suspect’s place of
residence and conducted a search. They recovered a blue jean trousers and a red
T-shirt that he was wearing on the day of the killing, which were still
bloodstained but had been washed and hung on the washing line. The accused is
still in police custody,” said Chief Insp Simango.
She challenged member of the public to avoid using violence
to solve differences. Chronicle
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