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Patrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
A Pumula North man allegedly strangled his 58-year-old father to death before gouging out his eyes and forcing his two minor relatives to share the same bed with the corpse overnight.Trust Moyo, 28, of house number 7705 strangled his father Mboland who was returning from a beer drink on Sunday at around 11PM in the presence of his 14-year-old relative who is deaf and speech challenged and another minor whose age could not be ascertained.
Friends, relatives and neighbours of the late Mboland were still in shock when a Chronicle news crew visited the house yesterday around 9.45 AM.
Police were already at the scene with a metal coffin, waiting to collect the body.
A sombre atmosphere engulfed the area as residents struggled to come to terms with the brutal murder.
Mboland’s body was still inside the house as the police officers were waiting for their colleagues from the department of homicide to attend the scene.
Trust was seated next to his father’s corpse and he appeared unmoved by the gravity of his crime.
Officers from the homicide department arrived at the scene at around 10:54AM and after about 37 minutes of scene identification, the body of Mboland, wrapped in a blanket was taken out of the house and placed into the metal coffin.
An indifferent Trust, now in handcuffs, boarded the police truck and sat beside the metal coffin.
He baffled everyone when he lit a cigarette and started smoking as the police truck drove away.
Trust’s aunt Gladys said she learnt about her brother’s death yesterday morning.
She said Trust visited her house and notified her that her brother (his father) was gravely ill.
“I then came to this house and was shocked to see that my brother was actually dead,” said Gladys.
She said she was shocked to see a copper cable round Mboland’s neck and his eye gouged out.
Gladys said she then went and made a report to the police who attended the scene.
“Trust confessed killing his father and didn’t attempt to run away or hide his crime,” she said.
Gladys said Trust told the police that his father returned from a beer drink at around 11PM and started arguing with him.
She said the reasons for the fight were vague.
“So he said his father wanted to beat him using a copper cable which he grabbed. Trust said he overpowered his father and strangled him using the same copper cable until he lost consciousness,” said Gladys.
She said Trust said he then took the copper cable and tied it around his father’s neck and tightened it using a pliers.
Gladys said Trust said he was the one who lifted his father’s body and laid it on the bed.
“He then gouged his eyes and called his two young relatives into the bedroom. Trust told the two minors that they were sleeping in the bedroom on the same bed with his father’s corpse,” she said.
A neighbour told The Chronicle that Trust was a quiet young man before he went to South Africa.
The neighbour said Trust was never the same when he returned from South Africa.He was involved in crimes and on his return from South Africa, he started behaving like a mental patient, said the neighbour.
“He came back from South Africa a changed man and he was in constant fights with his father. It’s so sad that it has ended like this,” said the neighbour on condition of anonymity.
An Inspector with the police urged parents gathered at the scene to respect their elderly children and avoid engaging in physical fights with them. He said children on their part should also respect their parents and not fight them.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo could not be reached for comment as he was said to be out of office
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