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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
BULAWAYO High Court Judge, Justice Evangelista Kabasa has sentenced a 24-year-old Chiwundura man to 15 years in prison for the murder of a neighbourhood watch committee member following a misunderstanding.

Justice Kabasa, sitting at Gweru High Court Circuit at the Gweru Magistrates’ Court found Fortune Makombe of Chitubu Village, Chief Chiwundura in Chiwundura area in Midlands Province guilty of murder with actual intent and sentenced him to 15 years in prison.

She did not suspend any sentence.

Makombe pleaded not guilty to murder but Justice Kabasa found him guilty of murder with actual intent after a full trial.

In his defence, Makombe told the court that he had been angered by the now deceased Jimmy Ncube (54) who had scolded him after he inquired on the progress of a theft case he had reported to him.

“I approached him (Ncube) asking him if he had made any leads with regards to a case of theft I had reported to him. I wanted to find out if he had made any progress and he was very rude stating that he was not responsible for looking for my stolen goods as he was not my father. He then slapped me before they left the bar with his brother,” said Makombe.

However, witnesses told the court that Makombe had been angered by the decision by the bottle store owner to close the bar when he still wanted to drink beer.

A witness, Ndaba Ncube said on May 18, 2019, he was drinking beer at Zvope Bottle Store before the now deceased Jimmy, who was his brother, arrived at the bottle store.

He said his brother was drunk.

“The owner of the bottle store, Morgan Fundira, advised me to take my brother home since he wanted to close the bottle store.

Fundira also advised Makombe to go home and that did not go down well with him. Makombe started shouting and threatening Fundira with death for closing the bottle store early. So we left the bottle store with my brother headed for home,” said Ndaba.

He said Makombe followed them holding two bricks in his hands.

“Makombe threw the bricks in our direction before we fled in different directions. Makombe caught up with me and hit me on the back with a brick before I abandoned the bicycle I was pushing and took to my heels. I later returned looking for my brother and found his body lying in a pool of blood about 250 metres from the bottle store. He had multiple injuries on his head. At the scene were two bricks with blood stains,” he said.

It was the State’s case that on the day in question, and at around 8PM Jimmy arrived at Zvope Bottle Store and appeared to be drunk.

After a few minutes Fundira advised patrons to leave the bottle store since he wanted to close for the day.

The court heard that Fundira’s announcement did not go down well with Makombe who began shouting at him and also at Ndaba and Jimmy.

The deceased and Ndaba left the bottle store while Makombe was following behind from a distance.

The court heard that after walking a short distance, Makombe struck Ndaba with a brick once on the back resulting in him falling down.

Ndaba stood up and ran away.

Later, the court heard that Ndaba and his two other brothers returned looking for Jimmy and found his body lying in a pool of blood with multiple head injuries.

A report was made to the police leading to the arrest of Makombe.

The deceased’s remains were ferried to United Bulawayo Hospitals for a post-mortem examination which concluded that his death was caused by sub-arachnoid haemorrhage, multiple skull fractures and assault.

Mr Mirirai Shumba appeared for the State.