A LUPANE man, who allegedly murdered two workmates at the late Vice-President John Nkomo’s Winterblock Farm in Insuza last year, will appear before Bulawayo judge Justice Andrew Mutema at the Hwange High Court Circuit this week.
RICHARD MUPONDE SENIOR COURT REPORTER
Pardon Mpofu’s case would be heard after the court deals with culpable homicide cases that have flooded this year’s High Court Circuit.
The two men’s bodies were found half-dressed and in an advanced stage of decomposition in a septic tank at Nkomo’s farm in October 2013.
The case has been allocated more time and is going for a full trial as several witnesses have been lined up to testify. Mpofu risks being sent to the gallows if convicted considering the callous manner in which the murders were committed. He was arrested at his rural home in Lupane where he had fled to a few days after allegedly committing the murders.
The two bodies were discovered by Nomo’s son Kembo and Ndabazelizwe Ncube after they had gone to visit Paddock CSC at Winterblock Farm.
On arrival, they found no workers at the farm.
However, they detected a strong stench of rotting substance from the direction of the septic tank that was a few metres away from the farm house.
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They opened the septic tank and discovered two human bodies partially submerged and at an advanced stage of decomposition. They reported the matter to Insuza police.
Meanwhile, a Mbembesi man and a juvenile were yesterday sentenced to four and three years in prison, respectively, for assaulting a fellow villager on their way from a beer drink in a dispute over a stolen dog. Bulelani Kona (20) and the 17-year-old juvenile were convicted of culpable homicide by Justice Mutema.
The juvenile was sentenced to four years but one year of the sentence was conditionally suspended for five years after the judge took cognisance of his age.
Kona was sentenced to six years and two years were suspended from his sentence.
The two were accused of assaulting a fellow villager, whose name was not mentioned in court, on January 20 this year with a knobkerrie and a belt all over his body accusing him of stealing Kona’s dog.
They left him for dead and he was picked up the following day, but died soon after.
