Zimpapers Logo

Thandeka Moyo Court Reporter
A 17-YEAR-OLD boy from Pumula South suburb in Bulawayo has been convicted of murder with actual intent for fatally stabbing his aunt seven times with a kitchen knife. The teenager, who cannot be named because he is a minor, also ordered the woman’s nine-year-old son to clean the blood-stained weapon after the gruesome murder.

Bulawayo High Court Judge Justice Maxwell Takuva on Friday said the boy would not escape a custodial sentence as he had been convicted of an aggravated offence. The teenager lived with his late aunt, Oppah Ndlovu, 46, in Pumula South as his mother was in South Africa where she worked.

Justice Takuva remanded him in custody to today for sentencing. Nokuthaba Ngwenya for the State said the boy attacked his aunt after she confiscated his cellphone and rebuked him for not performing his chores.

Ndlovu’s son, now aged 10, took to the witness stand and narrated how his cousin ordered him to wash the blood-stained knife that was used to kill his mother.

“I was bathing when I heard my mother screaming and calling out my name. I immediately stormed out of the bathroom and saw blood splattered all over the lounge and my mother’s bedroom,” said the boy.

The boy, who was testifying in camera, said he tried to run away but his cousin caught up with him. “He covered my mouth so that I couldn’t scream and ordered me to mop up the blood-stained floor and clean the knife which he used to kill my mother,” he said.

He said the teenage killer ordered him to accompany him to their neighbour’s house and made him lie about how Ndlovu died. “My cousin once bedded his girlfriend on my mother’s bed among other mischievous activities which resulted in her scolding him.”

The teenager, through his lawyer Nomakhosi Sandi, said he killed Ndlovu in self-defence as his aunt was assaulting him with a big kitchen spoon.