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SA man's body found on Zimbabwe farm
By
Lindie Whiz
THE body of a South
African man shot dead in September turned up two months later at a farm
in Nyamandlovu, north-west of Zimbabwe’s second largest city of
Bulawayo, a court heard last Friday.
Jacobus Martinus Oosthuyes was shot through the head with a CZ pistol and his body was put in his car and dumped at the farm, Matabeleland North provincial magistrate John Masimba was told at the arraignment of Leo Matibe who is now facing charges of murder.
Matibe, 24, of Pumula North in Bulawayo was not formally charged. He was remanded in custody to Monday next week when he will join three other accomplices facing an unrelated armed robbery charge.
Zimbabwean prosecutors said on September 26 this year, at around 3am, Matibe in the company of an accomplice who is still at large and a witness whose name has not been disclosed, were in the Bulawayo city centre allegedly searching for victims to rob.
They found Oosthuyes in his car parked along 8th Avenue between Robert Mugabe Way and Jason Moyo Street.
The men told him that he was under arrest for wrongful parking, and Matibe’s accomplice who is still at large, produced a police identity card.
They told Oosthuyes that they were taking him to Bulawayo Central Station where he would pay his deposit fine and they directed him past the police station along Jason Moyo Street driving northwards.
When they got to the corner of Jason Moyo Street and 3rd Avenue, Oosthuyes, who was driving a white Nissan Sentra with South African number plates stopped the car refusing to take further instructions from Matibe and his accomplice.
The police witness, prosecutors said, alighted from the motor vehicle and ran away leaving behind Matibe and his accomplice.
The suspect who is still at large allegedly produced a pistol and threatened to shoot dead Oosthuyse who through fear started driving on.
At the corner of Jason Moyo Street and 2nd Avenue, prosecutors said, the pair shot Oosthuyse once in the head with a pistol and the bullet head went through the roof of the car.
They drove out of Bulawayo and dumped the body at Benminton Farm in the Nyamandlovu commercial farming area about 40-km northwest of Bulawayo.
The men took a portable refrigerator, a mobile phone and 700 rands in cash.
Oosthuyse’s remains were discovered on November 18 and he was identified through his passport, which had been dumped with him.
According to police sources, only the skull and part of the spinal cord were recovered after wild animals had devoured the rest of the body.
Matibe was arrested on December 3 on an unrelated charge of armed robbery.
On Monday, Matibe will be back in court with Last Gava, 23, and Dumisani Sibanda, 37, of Nketa to face armed robbery charges.
Allegations against the trio are that on December 3, they approached a businessman who runs a business at Mership House, Main Street, armed with a CZ pistol. The man had just closed shop and was going out.
Matibe allegedly pointed a pistol at the complainant who panicked and dropped five mobile phones and ran into a nearby shop which was still open shouting for help.
When Matibe realised that there were many people in the shop, he allegedly fled and the complainant together with some plain cloth detectives gave chase. Prosecutors said as they were about to catch up with him, Matibe fired one shot injuring the complainant in the right armpit.
Matibe was arrested
at the scene and the pistol was recovered.
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