By Bulawayo Correspondent

LAWYERS representing a Bulawayo man, Rodney Tongai Jindu have approached the Supreme Court challenging a High Court ruling which committed capital punishment for his role over callous murder of two of his friends in 2017.

In August 2018, Bulawayo High Court Judge Nokuthula Moyo convicted Jindu of murder with actual intent in connection with the deaths of Mboneli Joko Ncube and Cyprian Kudzurunga.

Justice Moyo sentenced Jindu to death and since then he has been on death row.

Jindu (27) shot dead Kudzurunga of Queens Park East on January 29, 2017, before burying him in a shallow grave in Burnside’s suburb. He later sent a message to the deceased’s mother pretending to be Cyprian Kudzurunga and claiming he had suddenly left Zimbabwe.

He also shot Ncube and dismembered his body before setting the deceased on fire before burying him in four shallow graves also in Burnside.

Jindu also confessed he ate the pair’s raw livers and cooked their brains.

The court had previously heard that Jindu was mentally ill but following a medical examination he was declared fit to stand trial.

During trial, Jindu also confessed that he was sent by the devil to kill the two men, and further threatened to unleash the evil spirit on prosecutors.

However, Jindu through his lawyer Dixon Abraham of Tanaka Law Chambers has filed an appeal at the Supreme Court citing the State as a respondent.

In his grounds of appeal, Jindu submitted the court-a-quo erred and misdirected itself by convicting him on two counts of murder when there was evidence he was mentally incapacitated.

“There was cogent evidence that appellant was mentally incapacitated to appreciate the implications of his actions at the material time of committing the offence. Wherefore, appellants prays that the appeal be and is hereby allowed,” reads part of Jindu’s appeal papers.

Jindu wants the judgment and sentence of the High Court to be set aside and be substituted with an acquittal.

The State is still to file its opposing papers.