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Bongani Ndlovu, Chronicle Correspondent
A 39-YEAR-OLD Esigodini man was yesterday allegedly brutally axed to death and his body placed on a railway line where a train crushed it into two.

The gory incident occurred at around 2AM opposite the Seventh Day Adventist Church at the rail/road crossing in Habane Township.

Family members told Chronicle they believed Kwanele Moyo was deliberately put on the railway line to conceal evidence of his murder.

The train cut across his chest, separating the upper body from the lower side.

Relatives said Moyo’s head was untouched by the wheels of the train and it had several axe wounds, suggesting that he was already dead when his assailants placed his body on the railway line.

Beitbridge-Bulawayo Railway spokesperson Mike Hamilton confirmed the incident but declined to give details.

“Investigations are underway,” he said.

When a Chronicle news crew arrived at the scene yesterday morning, police had just collected the body.  There was a pool of blood covered by sand at the area where the two parts of Moyo’s body were lying.

Residents had attempted to cover the blood with sand.

Moyo’s horrified relatives were still milling around the track trying to come to grips with the incident.

Mpilo Sibanda, Moyo’s cousin who lived with him at Umzingwane Agricultural College, some three kilometres from the scene, said he was awoken by a phone call from a friend telling him to come and identify a body that had been run over by a train in Habane.

“I drove to the scene. I immediately identified Kwanele by the clothes he was wearing,” said Sibanda who seemed to be in shock.
“I suspect he was mugged and murdered because when I got there I noticed a deep cut from the left ear to the bottom of the neck. I suspect he was axed and then thrown on the railway line to cover up the  murder. Kwanele had numerous deep cuts on his head,” he said.

Sibanda said he last saw Moyo on Tuesday morning when he was on his way for a beer drink in Habane Township adding that his friends saw him on Thursday night at a place called KoShark.

Sibanda said the area where Moyo was allegedly killed had become a black spot with numerous muggings.

His father-in-law Cephas Ndlovu said there was a bad omen as two of four baboons spotted on the goods train that was carrying maize, jumped off the train to look at the body.

“We noticed them when we were looking at the body and one of them came very close. Yimihlolo leyi (It’s a bad sign), which could show he was murdered,” he said.

Ndlovu said they are waiting for his sister Sibongile Moyo who is based in Cape Town, South Africa to finalise burial arrangements.

Witnesses said they woke up to continuous sound of the train’s horn, a sort of code signifying that the train had run over a person.

“Normally when such things happen the train driver hoots continuously until people come. Several people from the neighbourhood rushed to the scene. I woke up only to find out Kwanele was the one who had been run over,” said a woman who only identified herself as MaMoyo.

She said Moyo’s head, which was attached to one arm and the shoulder lay in a twisted heap outside the tracks.
MaMoyo said the rest of the body lay mangled and bloody inside the tracks.

Residents said Moyo’s attackers could have taken advantage of the local night spots that closed late.

“The bars are the ones that are the problem because they close late. There should be a curfew put in place to curb this problem. Habane is pitch black at night as there are no functional street lights. Gangsters and thieves take advantage of it,” said a resident who declined to be named.