A FORMER security guard from Chiredzi has been sentenced to death for the ritual murder of a woman from the same district while his wife and mother-in-law, cited by police as possible accomplices, were set free.
Zakaria Simango, 35, his wife, Christine Manganya Sithole, 29, and her mother, Mahlaba Hurudza, 45, from the Tshovani area of Chiredzi, had been in remand prison since 2003.
They pleaded not guilty for the murder of Ndakaziva Mapako, 21, also from Chiredzi when they appeared in court last week.
However, Justice Francis Bere -- siting at the Bulawayo High Court -- convicted Simango and imposed the death penalty. The judge acquitted his wife and mother-in-law.
The murder occurred in February 2003 at Ingwizi Estate in Magwe District, Matabeleland South, where Simango was employed as a security guard.
The court heard that on the 6th of that month, Mapako went to Ingwizi Estate where she intended to buy green mealies for resale. She had a baby strapped to her back.
She met Simango, Hurudza and Sithole at a local bus terminus and enquired if they knew where she could get the green mealies.
The trio indicated that they could help her, with Simango claiming he could secure the mealies at a cheaper price since he was an employee at the estate.
Prosecutors alleged that Simango and his co-conspirators started speaking in the Shangani language as they plotted the murder. The state claimed Simango’s mother-in-law wanted human blood for ritual purposes.
The victim was offered over-night accommodation and, in the early hours of the next morning, Simango and his wife took Mapako to the fields on the Estate.
However, before they got to the fields, Simango demanded money from Mapako who refused to pay before she was given the maize mealies.
When he could get no money, Simango struck her once in the head with axe, killing her instantly, prosecutors claimed.
He then took a cloth and soaked it in her blood before leaving the body in the bush with Mapako’s infant child crying and roaming around its mother’s body.
Villagers later discovered the body and made a report to the police leading to the trio’s arrest.