The delay in
closing the case has baffled the Takawira family which paid US$1 050 for DNA
tests for the deceased.
Family members
accused Police of acting in cahoots with the Charumbiras and trying to sweep
the alleged murder of headman Taurayi Lovemore Takawira (38) under the carpet.
The murder case is pending at the High Court.
Police
allegedly tried to close the case of murder against Charumbira’s alleged 11
bodyguards after it declared that the body which was found in a state of
advanced decomposition did not belong to Takawira. The Takawira family however
insisted that the body belonged to the headman after positively identifying
several things including the clothes that the deceased wore on the day of the
alleged murder.
The family
blocked Police from giving Takawira’s suspected corpse a pauper’s burial after
appealing to the High Court for DNA tests.
The deceased’s
wife said they are grieved and pained by the slow pace of the case and the
constant realization that her husband’s body is there in the mortuary.
Takawira’s
relatives who spoke on condition of anonymity said burial is not taking place
now because Police is blocking Aleck Maunganidze, the Chief Technician in the
Department of Applied Biology and Biochemistry at the National University of
Science and Technology (NUST) from releasing DNA results for a process carried
out on October 17, 2023.
Several efforts
to get a comment from Maunganidze were futile as his mobile was not reachable.
National Police
Spokesperson Paul Nyathi was not picking his calls when Masvingo Mirror
contacted him.
Chief
Charumbira denied allegations of his involvement in the concealment of the
murder case. He initially told Masvingo Mirror that he was unaware of the case
and threatened to sue the newspaper if it went ahead and published the story.
He later changed his statement and said that he was only aware of one similar
incident which took place along the power line near Bondolfi.
He said that
the suspects involved in that incident were arrested and have been acquitted by
the High Court.
The wrangle
between Chief Bere and Chief Charumbira arose following the re-establishment of
Bere chieftainship 125 years after it was abolished.
Boundary
disputes arose and it is the State case that Winterton Chirove, a Zanu PF
activist who was only five months out of prison after serving 18 years for
murder was among 11 of alleged Chief Charumbira’s bodyguards.
They allegedly
attacked Takawira and two other village heads, Mike Wengedzai Matambanadzo and
Luckson Sinamai (all under Chief Bere) who were clearing a piece of land
allocated to Sinamai by Chief Bere at village 17A Mushandike Resettlement Area,
Masvingo.
Sinamai and
Matambanadzo escaped, leaving Takawira who was not feeling well behind.
Takawira was not seen again until November 3, 2021 when his decomposing body
was discovered by a man looking for his cattle. The matter was reported to
Police leading to the arrest of the suspects.
The accused
argued in court that the discovered body was not that of Headman Takawira. They
insisted that Takawira went to South Africa. Takawira’s family argued that they
positively identified the deceased’s body including the clothes that he was
wearing on the day that he was attacked by the suspects.
Initially, the
body was supposed to go to South Africa for DNA tests but for reasons of costs,
the process was done in Zimbabwe by Maunganidze.
The deceased’s
molar tooth, a piece of his skin, his toothbrush and two of his brothers Joseph
and Leon Takawira were provided for the DNA tests.
“We paid for
the DNA tests however, when we went to collect the results, Maunganidze
informed us that Police had instructed him not to release them. This is what’s
delaying our brother’s burial. I don’t understand why Police is withholding the
results,” said Takawira
He said the
longer the results are kept back, the more different stories they hear from the
Police.
“It is a ploy
to prevent Charumbira’s alleged people from going to prison but we are
suffering because we can’t bury our brother,” said Takawira.
The 11 suspects
are Chirove, Shelton Samuel (54), Nogo Zicheche (65), Moleon Mbengo (50), Eriya
Kwangwari (76), Elfas Mudhenge (76), Brighton Madzivire (33), Vunganai Makono
(68), Ratiel Muvingi (86), Aquilla Muzenda (61) and Paul Clever Munankopa (75).
Chirove
murdered Petros Jeka an MDC polling agent in 2002. The incident happened at
Bondolfi Business Centre in Masvingo Rural. Chirove was the Zanu PF youth
chairperson and was jointly convicted of the murder along with Blessing Sonono.
Masvingo Mirror
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