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The late Julius Muganhu

Patrick Chitumba, Senior Reporter
THE Bulawayo taxi driver who went missing six days ago is dead and his decomposing body was found near Kerry Mine on the outskirts of the city. Julius Muganhu’s body was in an advanced state of decomposition and his family members only managed to identify him because of the clothes he was last seen wearing.

It is suspected that Muganhu, 38, was murdered.

When the Chronicle news crew arrived at the family’s residence in New Magwegwe yesterday, most family elders had gone to Mpilo Central Hospital where the body had been taken for a post-mortem.

Muganhu’s son Pirimukai, 22, said they were called by police from Hillside Police Station to come and identify a body that had been discovered and they positively identified it as that of his father.

He said the body was found near Kerry Mine on the outskirts of the city just after Burnside suburb.

Pirimukai said when the police contacted them, they were just returning from Plumtree where they had gone to search for his father.

“We went to Plumtree Hospital mortuary to look for his body after we got wind that someone was murdered over the weekend but we didn’t find him. When Hillside police contacted us we proceeded to the police station and they showed us a decomposing body.

“Maggots were all over the body and his face was no longer clearly visible. So we identified him through a white pair of trousers, a blue work suit jacket, black safety shoes and a scotch shirt he was wearing,” said Pirimukai.

He said police told them that his father’s body was discovered by a herdboy.

“The herdboy is said to have informed his employer who then contacted the police,” said Pirimukai.

He said they later visited the spot where his father’s body was found and he noticed dried blood.

“There were struggling marks which indicated that he must have fought with his killers,” said Pirimukai.

A sobbing Pirimukai said his father had met the same fate as his sister Chipo who was murdered by her husband back in 2011.
Muganhu, a father of four, was last seen last Friday around 5:30PM by his colleagues driving a client. His relatives then filed a missing person report with the police on Saturday.

Pirimukai said four taxi drivers who were taken in by the police on Tuesday to assist with investigations have not yet been released, but

Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said he knew nothing about the case.

“Muganhu is expected to be buried at his rural home in Chivhu on Saturday.”

Early last year, another taxi driver was murdered along 14th Avenue in Famona suburb near Gifford High School.