THE body of a man from Tsholotsho in Matabeleland North Province was found floating in a dam with a deep cut on the chest and with some body parts missing after he had gone missing for three days, in what his family suspects was a ritual murder.
The body of Xolani Ngwenya was recovered with his tongue
and one of the ears reportedly missing.
The gory discovery led to the arrest of John Dube (43) from
Lukukwe Line, Innocent Mando (32) Hlalanikuhle Line, Immanuel Dube (48) of
Efusini and Blessing Dube (34) from Magwadeni Line from Tsholotsho area.
Part of the mourners at Xolani Ngwenya’s funeral
Ngwenya was buried on Thursday amid dramatic scenes. Burial
proceedings temporarily halted after family members demanded the missing body
parts claiming they couldn’t bury an “incomplete body”.
The family was reportedly insisting that they needed to
know where the parts had gone and who had removed them.
There was a strong suspicion that the body parts were taken
for ritual purposes.
Meanwhile, the quartet has since appeared before Tsholotsho
resident magistrate Victor Mpofu charged with murder as defined in Section 47
of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter 9:23.
They were not asked to plead and were remanded in custody
to 15 May and were advised to apply for bail at the High Court.
Allegations against the quartet are that on 19 March and at
around 9pm Innocent, Immanuel and Blessing went to one of the bottle stores at
Tsholotsho Business Centre where they picked up one of their accomplices John
and the now deceased.
After picking them up they reportedly proceeded to
Zikhululeni Dam claiming they were going for fishing.
It is reported that for a yet to be established reason or
motive the four suspects were alleged to have killed Ngwenya and thrown his
body in the dam.
They then took his clothes from the car and left them on
the edge of the dam before they went to their respective homesteads.
Ngwenya’s body was discovered on 22 March by one of the
villagers while floating in Zikhululeni Dam.
The villager notified the police who attended the scene and
retrieved the body from the dam before they took it for postmortem.
The deceased’s body had a stab wound on the chest and its
mouth was swollen.
Investigations led to the arrest of the four suspects and
their subsequent appearance in court.
Appearing before the same magistrate was Zanele Fuluma (30)
from Ngqoya Line in Tsholotsho facing charges of possessing dangerous drugs as
defined in Section 157 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform)
Act Chapter 9:23.
She pleaded guilty to the charge and was sentenced to an
effective five months in jail.
Fuluma who was initially sentenced to 10 months
imprisonment had five months of the sentence suspended for three years on
condition that she does not within that period commit an offence involving
possession of dangerous drugs.
The court proved that on 28 April police acting on tip off
proceeded to Fuluma’s place and upon arrival they conducted a search in her
house. The court heard that during the search police recovered 106 sachets of
dagga.
The discovery led to the arrest of Fuluma and she was
escorted to Tsholotsho Police Station.
Fuluma was arrested under the ongoing operation “no to
dangerous drugs and illicit substances” which was launched in February this
year. B Metro
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