Murder cases dominate High Court

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BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo is set to officially open the Hwange High Court Circuit on Monday for the first term of the 2014 legal year with 12 murder cases lined up for trial.

BULAWAYO High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo is set to officially open the Hwange High Court Circuit on Monday for the first term of the 2014 legal year with 12 murder cases lined up for trial.

RICHARD MUPONDE SENIOR COURT REPORTER

The Hwange High Court Circuit covers the whole of Matabeleland North.

Soon after the official opening, Justice Moyo will get down to business and start hearing some of the cases contained in this term’s list.

One of the major murder cases is that of a 37-year-old Nkayi villager, Jephias Mangisi, accused of fatally stabbing his wife with a spear on December 11 2012 over allegations of infidelity.

The State alleges that on that fateful day, Mangisi stormed into his in-laws’ homestead in Sibangani village in Nkayi in the dead of night and proceeded to the hut where his wife was sleeping.

He forcibly opened the door and struck her twice with a claw hammer on the lower side of the right ear and then drew a spear and stabbed her once on the lower part of the left breast killing her instantly.

Mangisi had allegedly accused his father-in-law Stephen Runeta of allowing his daughter to see other men at his homestead.

Justice Martin Makonese said he was alarmed by the rise in knife crimes in Matabeleland North when he presided over the third term of the Hwange High Court Circuit.

Justice  Makonese said the use of specified weapons such as Okapi knives in the province called for stiffer penalties.

He said this shortly before locking Try Mpala (46) in for 10 years for the murder of  a19-year-old during an alcohol-fuelled dispute.