A CHEGUTU artisanal miner has been jailed 25 years by the Chinhoyi High Court after killing a fellow miner for allegedly snatching his wife.
Kudakwashe Maposa will serve the full sentence for stabbing Tatenda Malunga to death.
According to the autopsy, Malunga's vital organs, the heart and lungs, were lacerated.
“To say the deceased was butchered is an understatement given the picture portrayed by the autopsy report admitted into evidence by consent,” Justice Catherine Bhachi-Muzawazi ruled.
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.
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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.
He was ferried to Chegutu Hospital where he died upon admission.
Maposa was only apprehended on April 17, 2024.
Eight State witnesses testified against Maposa.
Documentary evidence was also produced in court that included a post mortem report, affidavits from mortuary attendants and doctors, sketch plans and indications.
In his defence, Maposa said the woman who had been snatched was his wife.
“He [Maposa] claims to have been the wronged party with his wife having been stolen by the deceased. His bitterness effervesced to his friends,” the judge ruled.
“His friends were fighting his cause and his battle. Bosha provoked the situation on Maposa’s behalf. The whole fight was as a result of Maposa.
“He thus, cannot distance himself from the consequences of his and his friends’ concerted efforts of vengeance.”
The judge said the suspects were armed with lethal weapons showing their intent to harm the deceased.
“Any reasonable person would have subjectively foreseen that teaming up on a single person and assaulting him with lethal weapons all over his body, death would reasonably be an inevitable consequence,” the judge ruled.
“The murder was done in aggravating circumstances given the callous and heinous frenzied knife attacks.
“In sentencing the accused we have weighed the submissions made in mitigation against the victim impact statement.
“A clear message should be sent to all those in illegal mining enterprises who take the law into their hands through the possession and use of prohibited knives.
“It should be made loud and clear that no one is allowed to take law into their hands, assault and kill any other human being.”
