ZIMBABWE: TWO SENTENCED TO DEATH FOR MURDER OF CHILD

July 19, 2023:

A Zimbabwean High Court Judge on July 12, 2023 sentenced two convicted murderers to death for the killing of a 7-year-old boy, Tapiwa Makore, three years ago in the country’s Mashonaland East Province in rural Murewa area.
Judge Munamato Mutevedzi delivered the sentence, providing closure to the murder case that underwent nearly three years of trial since the incident occurred.
The convicted killers are Tapiwa Makore, a 60-year-old uncle of the deceased, and Tafadzwa Shamba, a 40-year-old herdboy.
The duo committed the murder in a proven case of ritualistic killing, as established in court. The details of the crime were revealed by Shamba during police investigations and in his confessions.
During the trial, it came to light that Shamba and Makore were under the influence of drugs when they murdered and mutilated the boy.
All pleas for leniency from the lawyers representing the killers were strongly rejected by Mutevedzi, who subsequently handed down a death sentence. The judge emphasized that no prison term could adequately match the severity of the crime.
Makore was murdered in September 2020, following which his body was dismembered into multiple pieces.
The two murderers however denied the allegations of murder levelled against them during trial although Shamba had confessed earlier on, giving vivid descriptions on how they killed the boy.
Section 48 of the Zimbabwe Constitution indicates that the death penalty may be imposed only for murder committed in aggravating circumstances and only on men aged between 21 and 70 years – not on women.
Zimbabwe last executed convicts in 2005, with the death sentence still being challenged on whether or not it should be scrapped, leaving scores of death row prison inmates after they were sentenced to death in the country’s jails.