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Patrick Chitumba Midlands Bureau Chief
FOUR gold panners who killed their colleague in a fight over a phone have been sentenced to 18 years in jail. High Court judge Justice Maxwell Takuva, sitting at the Gweru circuit yesterday, convicted brothers Evidence, 19, and Adventure Ruzive, 23, of Mapolisa village, Chief Masunda, Zvishavane; Hadson Chamutungwa, 24, of Mujawo village, Chief Mapenda, Zvishavane and Surprise Mashavira, 28, of Dzavakwa village, Chief Ndenga in Mberengwa, of murder with constructive intent for the death of Wellington Mushava on May 24, 2013.

“Accused one (Evidence) attacked the deceased on the upper part of the body with a knife which ripped the rib cage and pierced his heart. The autopsy report showed that there was a hole on the deceased’s heart meaning force was used in the commission of the offence,” said Justice Takuva.

He said Adventure, Chamutungwa and Mashavira also took turns to assault Mushava with burning logs which they had pulled from a fire.

Justice Takuva said he had wanted to sentence the quartet to 25 years in prison but had set aside seven years from the sentence considering that they had spent two and half years in remand prison waiting for their day in court.

He said the court had also considered that they were first offenders.

Justice Takuva said while the court had considered that they were people of lower intellect since they all went up to Grade Seven, offences of such a nature should not be condoned.

For the State, Tafadzwa Mupariwa told the court that on May 24, 2013, Mushava and his four colleagues were panning for gold along Runde River in Shurugwi District.

The court heard that in the evening, the five were at a makeshift bottle store when Evidence accused Mushava of stealing his cellphone.

“Mushava struck Evidence on the neck with an iron bar,” said Mupariwa.

The court heard that Adventure, Chamutungwa and Mashavira joined the fight and assaulted Mushava with logs on the face and neck.

“During the fight, Evidence pulled a knife and stabbed the now deceased on the chest, back and shoulder before he fell to the ground and died,” he said.

Mupariwa said Simbarashe Madhuveko, who had arrived at the scene and witnessed the incident, reported the matter to the police leading to the arrest of the gold panners.