Increase in murder cases worry courts
BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi has said the courts are concerned with the surge in murder cases perpetrated by gold panners, who do not show remorse or respect for the sanctity of human life.
Justice Mathonsi, who sentenced two gold panners — Tonderai Ngulube (25) and Nyasha Midzi (28) — to 25 years each in prison for the murder of Gift Mukwenda (19) over a woman, said life was God-given and should be cherished. The pair had pleaded not guilty to the charge.
“Life is a God-given gift that should be cherished and it comes once in a lifetime, however, we continue to lose the gift to gold panners who seem to have low life purposes,” said Justice Mathonsi.
“It is very shocking that a person can be subjected to such savagery by other human beings who are evil at heart. Violence should be reduced in communities and those who commit crimes like murder should get tough sentences to send a message out there. Murder cases display evil of the highest order.”
It was the State case that on December 13, 2016 around 0100hrs, a group of gold panners were drinking beer at Cane Nite Club in Shurugwi in the company of two sisters, Sekai and Priscilla Mpofu.
One of the sisters was the girlfriend to Henry Sibangani, a gold panner who is a friend of Ngulube and Midzi.
Priscilla went out of the club to meet her boyfriend, the now deceased Mukwenda.
Sibangani learnt about it and confronted Mukwenda and a fight broke out.
The court heard that when Ngulube and Midzi saw that Sibangani was being overpowered they teamed up against Mukwenda and assaulted him.
The trio assaulted Mukwenda using bar stools until he fell on his knees before Ngulube struck his head with a bar stool.
Mukwenda died on admission to Shurugwi District Hospital. After committing the offence, the trio ran away. Ngulube and Midzi were arrested the following day, while Sibangani is still at large. Mr Tafadzwa Mupariwa appeared for the State.