Grade Five pupil gets four years for burying classmate alive

A GOKWE man who allegedly buried his friend alive in sand seven years ago when he was still a kid in Grade Five was lucky to escape jail when he was slapped with a fouryear jail term which was wholly suspended on condition of good behaviour.

Polite Tekwane (20) of Marere Village under Chief Mukoka in Gokwe, who was 13 when he committed the offence in 2010 and doing Grade Five, appeared before Bulawayo High Court Judge, Justice Martin Makonese sitting in Gweru last week.

Justice Makonese acquitted Tekwane of murder with actual intent but convicted him of culpable homicide.

He sentenced Tekwane to four years imprisonment which was wholly suspended on condition of good behaviour.

In passing the sentence Justice Makonese said considering that the case dragged since 2010, the accused person’s right to fair trial within a stipulated timeframe as enshrined in the constitution was violated.

He added that considering the age of the accused person when he committed the offence, there was a need for the court to give a rehabilitative and punitive sentence.

“This experience should serve as a warning to the accused person so that he would not be found on the wrong side of the law,” said Justice Makonese.

The State’s case was that on 12 September 2010, Tekwane was playing with the now deceased Zanele Ngwenya and other school pupils at around 10am near Mandisarara River. While playing, they started taking turns of burying one another in sand, and the accused person dug a pit and buried Ngwenya lying on her stomach and covered her body including her head.

On observing that the accused person was covering the deceased’s head with sand, one of the pupils decided to rescue her but he threatened him. Tekwane buried Ngwenya alive and left the scene and she suffocated to death. Ngwenya’s body was later retrieved and the matter reported to the police leading to Tekwane’s arrest. Mr Tafadzwa Mupariwa appeared for the State.

Meanwhile, a 25-year-old man from Gokwe who went berserk and brutally murdered his stepmother by chopping off her head with an axe has been acquitted due to insanity.

Munyaradzi Kohwai of Chiyeka Village under Chief Sayi in Gokwe appeared before the same judge Justice Makonese.

Justice Makonese found Kohwai not guilty due to insanity and recommended him to be taken to Ingutsheni Central Hospital for treatment and further management.

The State’s case was that on 9 July 2012, the accused was at home with his father Elias Kohwai and the deceased when he started behaving strangely. This prompted Kohwai’s father Elias to take him to a neighbour’s place to have them assist in establishing whether he was normal or not. It became apparent that the accused was not in his right senses. Kohwai was then taken back home where he slept until around 4pm. When the accused person woke up, he started running away from the homestead.

His father pursued him, leaving the deceased at home. Somehow, the accused eluded his father and made his way home.

The court also heard that upon arrival, Kohwai armed himself with an axe and struck his stepmother on the head and neck several times. He then went away leaving the axe at the scene. Elias, the court heard, returned home and found the deceased in a pool of blood. He subsequently reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of the accused.

The State concedes to the fact that the accused was suffering from a mental disorder at the time of the commission of the offence and it is appropriate for the court to return a special verdict of not guilty reason of insanity in terms of Section 29(2) of the Mental Health Act.