A ZIMBABWEAN man, who was wanted in Botswana for the murder of a 79-year-old Francistown pensioner, has finally appeared at a magistrates’ court in the neighbouring country.
REPORT BY SILAS NKALA
Authorities have been seeking his extradition from Zimbabwe for seven years.
William Munyaradzi Mapurisa (29), who used to stay at Block V in Francistown, but originally from Masvingo, was last week extradited to Botswana after a long battle to have him deported to that country.
Botswana’s Voice newspaper, yesterday reported that Mapurisa faces charges of robbing and murdering his elderly neighbour, Vivian Moneedi Moyo, in March 2007.
The suspect was not asked to plead to murder when he appeared before a Francistown magistrate last Thursday.
He was remanded in custody to an indefinite date for trial at the High Court.
His bail request was turned down, as the court feared he was a flight risk. Court papers show that the victim, Moyo a well-known local cobbler, was strangled in his home in the afternoon after being bound and gagged.
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At the time of the incident, Moyo was alone and his wife returned that evening to discover his lifeless body in their ransacked house. It is alleged that after killing Moyo, Mapurisa fled into Zimbabwe with stolen household goods and clothing worth P2 225, as well as cash amounting to P210.
Investigating officer Madziba Duha told the court that the prime suspect, Mapurisa, had been placed on the Interpol wanted list, but had only been arrested by chance after Zimbabwean security officers detained him as a border jumper while he was trying to enter Botswana illegally in June the same year.
After discovering that he was wanted to answer a charge of murder, he was detained and held in prison in Bulawayo awaiting extradition. Duha told the court that the process of getting Mapurisa back from Zimbabwe had been delayed, because until last year, there had not been an extradition treaty between the two countries and he had refused to be voluntarily extradited.
Mapurisa did not oppose the prosecution’s application, but asked the court to speed up the process, arguing that he had been in prison in Zimbabwe for a long time awaiting extradition.
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