A HWANGE man who fatally assaulted a fellow reveller with a wooden plank following a misunderstanding over beer has been jailed seven years for culpable homicide.
Ragee Muleya from BH43 village under Chief Shana in
Jambezi, who was 24 at the time of committing the offense in March last year,
pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of culpable homicide when he appeared before
Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Maxwell Takuva.
Sitting on circuit at Hwange Magistrate court, Justice
Takuva convicted Muleya on a culpable homicide charge for negligently causing
the death of 24-year-old Talent Munkena, slapping him with a seven-year prison
term before conditionally suspending two years.
According to a statement of agreed facts between the state
led by Mrs Martha Cheda and defense counsel’s Mr Douglas Ncube from Legal Aid
Directorate on 27 March 2022 and at around 23:30hrs, the accused and the
deceased were at Wellington Bar drinking opaque. During the course of the beer
binge, the two had an altercation over some beer before the deceased threatened
the accused with assault.
The deceased subsequently fulfilled his threat, assaulting
the accused with an open hand once on the face. The accused then picked a
wooden plank, which was inside the bar and struck the deceased who fell down
unconscious once on the head.
Other revellers, Silibaziso Sibindi and Thabani Moyo
rendered first aid on the deceased and he regained consciousness before he was
ferried to Jambezi clinic for treatment.
However, the deceased succumbed to injuries sustained from
the assault nine days later on 5 April 2022. Meanwhile, in a related case, a
25-year-old Inyathi man was sentenced to six years imprisonment for causing the
death of Malaki Ndlovu whom he fatally struck for “interfering in my business”.
Justice Takuva found Nelson Ncube not guilty of murder but
convicted him on a lesser charge of culpable homicide for causing death of
Ndlovu who was 41 years old at the time he met his death. One year of the
sentence was suspended for five years for good behaviour.
The state and defense agreed that on 30 April 2022 and at
around 1900hrs, Ncube and Ndlovu were at Joylink Bottlestore playing snooker as
well as drinking ‘hot stuff’ beer with some unidentified persons. During that
time, the deceased had a misunderstanding with one of the patrons only
identified as Mtshifana before Ncube reprimanded the former.
This, however, did not go down well with the deceased who
approached the accused and queried why he was interfering in the issue. A
misunderstanding ensued before the two started pushing and shoving each other.
Ncube then struck the deceased once on the forehead with a snooker stick he was
holding resulting in him falling down unconscious.
The accused and Polite Sinela rendered first aid on the
deceased before he fled the scene after pouring water on the deceased while
Sinela covered the deceased with a blanket as he was shivering. The deceased
was ferried to the hospital the following day where he later died. Chronicle
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