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Rodney Tongai Jindu

BULAWAYO has been held spellbound by the chilling story of violent murders involving a baby-faced 25-year-old young man who stands accused of killing two of his close friends. Rodney Tongai Jindu of Glengarry suburb has been linked to the violent deaths of Cyprian Kudzurunga (28) of Queens Park and Mboneli Ncube (30), his neighbour who stayed four houses away from his home.

Jindu allegedly shot and killed Kudzurunga at point blank range before burying his body in a shallow grave on a vacant residential plot in Burnside suburb on January 29. Kudzurunga —Jindu’s childhood friend — had apparently stumbled upon evidence of an incriminating nature in the latter’s house prompting Jindu to silence him. The two had allegedly spent the day drinking alcohol and when Kudzurunga decided to walk home at about 10PM, Jindu offered to escort him.

According to a statement he made to the police, he shot his friend twice — in the head and chest in a bushy area between Glengarry and Queens Park before carrying the body home in a wheelbarrow.

He allegedly stuffed it in the boot of his car where he left it overnight before burying the body on the next day. To show meticulous planning and cold-hearted bravado, Jindu had time to use his friend’s cellphone to send a message to Kudzurunga’s mother telling her that he was leaving the country as he had done something terrible and the police were after him.

This was apparently in a bid to throw her off track so that she wouldn’t continue looking for her missing son. As fate would have it, his story was inconsistent and the police managed to pin him down resulting in a confession five days after the incident. Jindu led investigators to the shallow grave and Kudzurunga’s body was recovered.

Following publication of the story in The Chronicle last Monday, Ncube’s family was alerted and quickly made a follow up with the police. To their credit, the police wasted no time in piecing together the missing links in Ncube’s disappearance and the fact that he was last seen with Jindu made him a prime suspect.

Again, he confessed to murdering Ncube — a devout Jehovah’s Witness — on January 12 and selling some of his body parts to omalayitsha after promises of $20 000 in cash or a Toyota Quantum were made. Jindu told investigators that he murdered Ncube and handed the body to omalayitsha who harvested the parts and gave him the remains which he buried at the same residential stand in Burnside where he interred Kudzurunga. Yesterday, we reported how Jindu allegedly cut the dismembered body of Ncube and set the pieces on fire before burying them in four shallow graves.

The mutilated remains of what Jindu claimed were Ncube’s body were exhumed last Friday by the police after Jindu made indications.

The head, a hand and both legs had been cut off. Jindu told the police that the omalayitsha allegedly demanded body parts of people with a Ncube surname but were yet to pay him at the time of his arrest.

Police are continuing their investigations as there is a possibility that there could be more people who could have fallen victim to Jindu. What makes his case intriguing is that he is not the archetypical serial killer with neighbours, friends and associates describing him as quiet, soft-spoken and respectful.

However, the methodical, cold-blooded and spine-chilling manner which he killed his friends execution style suggests that he was living a double life.

Psychologists will have their hands full in trying to decipher the inner workings of a mind capable of such gruesome atrocities. While he is still to have his day in court, the evidence against him is overwhelming and incriminating and we are glad that the police have cracked this one just in the nick of time.

We have always alluded to the ruthless efficiency of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and in this case, they have clearly outdone themselves once again.

Despite evident paucity of resources, investigators managed to use the little resources at their disposal to stop a serial killer dead in his tracks. Their good work could have just saved the lives of innocent people.

Our prayer is that they get to the bottom of this matter and apprehend Jindu’s accomplices – in this case the omalayitsha and their paymasters’ possibly in South Africa and anyone who assisted in perpetrating these heinous crimes. We also commiserate with the Kudzurunga and Ncube families and hope that they find comfort and closure following the arrest of Jindu.

His incarceration might not bring back their loved ones but we hope they get a measure of justice once he is jailed for a lengthy period or possibly a death sentence. No one deserves to die the way Kudzurunga and Ncube met their fate and we can only wonder what society breeds monsters in the mould of Jindu.