Beer garden Murder

Victim’s family wants suspect to hang

Knifed to death for reprimanding wayward youth

Oswell Moyo Chronicle Reporter
A-37-YEAR old Mzilikazi man died on the spot after he was stabbed in the neck and stomach for admonishing a youth he found insulting his aunt minutes after walking into a beer garden.

Simon Ncube, 23, allegedly stabbed Nkululeko Vuma with an okapi knife at around 9PM at Mzilikazi’s Manwele Beer Garden in Bulawayo on Friday following a misunderstanding after he told the murder suspect not to insult his aunt, only identified as Rita who was in the bar.

It is alleged that Ncube was angered by Vuma’s intervention as he was hurling insults at the elderly woman and started poking him on the forehead and later stabbed him.

Bulawayo Metropolitan Provincial police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo said: “We’ve received a murder report and we’ve since arrested a suspect and he’s assisting us with investigations.”

A Chronicle news crew yesterday visited Vuma’s home in Mzilikazi suburb and managed to talk to family members.

Vuma’s widow, Jennet Nyoni, 31, said her husband left home for a drink at the beer garden soon after arriving home from work at Power Sales Stores where he was employed

“Upon arrival at the beer garden, he saw Simon insulting our aunt Rita. My husband asked Simon why he was insulting a person as old as his mother. This angered Simon who went on to point his finger at my husband’s forehead. I’m told that he said, ‘uzangenzani wena ungumfazi akulalutho ozangeza lona’ (What can you do to me, you’re a woman),” said Nyoni.

“They started fighting and Simon drew an okapi, stabbed him in the neck and stomach. He died on the spot. Simon ran away to his sister’s place in Hillside but was later apprehended by the police. Vuma was a quiet person.”

His uncle George Moyo, said they were saddened by Vuma’s demise in a violent and cruel manner.

“It’s very painful to lose a son in such a manner. Nkululeko was a quiet man. We urge the judiciary to consider death sentence for Simon. He must be killed as well, he doesn’t deserve to live,” said Moyo, angrily.

Moyo said police took Ncube to Manwele beer garden for indications.

Vuma is survived by his wife Nyoni and three children, two boys, aged 10 and 12 and a girl aged 16.

The city has witnessed an upsurge in murder cases over petty issues.

Last week, a man from Romney Park suburb gruesomely murdered his ex-girlfriend’s sister whose stomach he ripped open exposing her intestines after she barred him from talking to his former lover.