An artisanal miner has been killed for snatching a fellow miner’s wife. Tatenda Malunga was stabbed to death by Kudakwashe Maposa who has been jailed for 25 years by the Chinhoyi High Court.
Maposa’s accomplice Integrity Nguruve was arrested in
connection with murder but later fled from justice after being granted bail. Another
suspect Tinotenda Bosha was not arrested and is on the run.
According to the court papers, on December 26, 2023,
Malunga was walking home with his friend Courage Mudzitiri when they came
across the accused persons who were inside a parked vehicle.
The suspects alighted from the vehicle and confronted
Malunga and his friend. Maposa, who was holding an axe, together with Bosha
accosted the deceased accusing him of snatching other peoples’ wives.
It is alleged that they ordered Malunga and his friend to
sit down, but the deceased refused. They then assaulted the deceased for
refusing to sit down. Maposa produced a knife and viciously stabbed the
deceased.
The deceased is said to have begged and pleaded with the
gang, but they stabbed him all over his body. Maposa is said to have stabbed
the deceased on the right side of the chest.
Nguruve also stabbed the deceased twice on the chest and
once on the right side of the hip with a Columbian knife. They then fled the
scene and left the deceased screaming in pain.