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Fairness Moyana in Hwange
A MAN from Lupane could not stomach rejection from his ex-girlfriend and retaliated by torching her bedroom hut while she was asleep.
So evil and calculative were the intentions of Silandulo Tshuma (38) of Sibangani Village One that he secured the bedroom door of his 19-year-old ex-girlfriend, Ms Nobukhosi Nkomo with a wire to prevent her and her siblings from escaping before setting the grass thatched hut on fire.
Last week, he appeared before Hwange regional magistrate, Mr Collet Ncube who slapped him with a 10-year prison term before conditionally suspending three years after convicting him of three counts of attempted murder. During mitigation, Tshuma chided the court displaying knowledge of the law by giving the magistrate his option of preferred sentences.
“If I may be given community service or a wholly suspended sentence or my sentence to run concurrently,” he said, prompting the magistrate to quiz him on where he had obtained the information.
In response Tshuma said, “I used to be an avid reader of newspapers and I got to know about the court processes.”
The court heard that on 21 March and at around 7pm, Nkomo was sleeping in her bedroom hut with Perseverance Sibanda and Thembelihle Sibanda, both aged seven at her parents’ homestead in Dayika Village, when she was awakened by smoke in the hut and she observed that the roof was on fire.
She woke up her siblings and tried to open the door but discovered that it was secured from outside. She then screamed for help before her brother, Mr Method Nkomo came to their rescue. He tried to open the door but discovered it had been secured by a wire. He quickly got an axe from his bedroom and used it to break open the door.
The three then ran out just in time as the roof subsequently caved in and burned down. The following morning Ms Nkomo, her brother and Aleck and Mbonisi Sibanda teamed up and tracked the shoe print, leading them to Mr Penny Sibanda’s homestead where they found Tshuma sleeping in one of the huts. Sandals matching the shoe prints were recovered in the kitchen hut in which Tshuma was found in. A citizen’s arrest was effected on Tshuma before being handed over to police. Mr Vumizulu Mangena represented the State.
Bongani Ndlovu