ZIMBABWE: SUPREME COURT UPHOLDS DEATH SENTENCES AGAINST 10

May 8, 2014: The Supreme Court upheld death sentences against 10 people accused of committing gruesome and callous murders around the country. Njabulo Tshuma, Vusa Mugobo Ndlovu, Zacharia Amos Simango, Nicholas Ncube, Michael Goodluck Nleya, Bright Kwashira, Cloudius Mutawo, Farai Lawrence Ndlovu, Wellington Gadzira and Norman Sibanda were all found guilty of murder with actual intent.
Deputy Chief Justice Luke Malaba, sitting with five others, found no extenuating circumstances for the 10 after they all appealed against convictions and sentences. Nleya pleaded guilty to killing Blessed Msebele, a nine-year-old boy in a busy area in the Mnyamana area in Plumtree on October 8, 2010.
Kwashira and an accomplice were convicted of murder with actual intent to kill and robbery of Ommund Peter Sivertsen (71), by the High Court on July 3, 2006.
He was aged between 19 and 20 years at the time of the offence.
Mutawo of Maushe Village under Chief Njelele in Gokwe, another youth aged 19 at the time of the offence was sentenced to death for murdering his father who was 71 years.
Ndlovu (23) and Gadzira (37) were both convicted of murder for killing Michael Sunderland (37) and Geoffrey Andrew Povey (65).
The State’s case was that the two told the deceased that there was a gold rush near Kwekwe River and got into the back of the deceased’s motor vehicle.
They put cyanide poison into water bottles that were at the back of the vehicle, resulting in the death of the two after they drank the poisoned water.
Tshuma and Vusa, who are nephews, were found guilty of murder of Timothy Mugobo with actual intent. Mugobo was Vusa’s elder brother.
Ncube (25) of number 1459 DRC, Hwange killed his wife because she wanted to divorce him. (Sources: www.herald.co.zw, 09/05/2014)