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Manford Sibanda (38) approached Mr Mbuso Sibanda (36), of Plot Number Lucy Road, Montgomery and employed as a security guard at Eastview High School and asked for money.
When Mr Sibanda told him that he did not have money, Manford picked an axe and struck him twice on the head.
Manford pleaded not guilty but was convicted of attempted murder by Western Region senior magistrate Mr Owen Tagu sitting at the Bulawayo regional court.
He will, however, serve an effective four years after the magistrate suspended one year on condition of good behaviour for five years.
Sentencing Manford, Mr Tagu said he deserved a deterrent sentence because he was the aggressor and had not shown remorse in court despite having used a dangerous weapon to attack Mr Sibanda.
The State’s case presented by Mr Admire Chikwayi was that on a day unknown to the prosecutor, Manford met Mr Sibanda at Woodville shops at about 7pm and he followed him into a shop where he begged for money.
They started arguing after Mr Sibanda had told him that he had no money and Manford immediately bolted out of the shop and returned with an axe in hand.
In his defence, Manford told the court that he did not ask for money but was drinking beer with Mr Sibanda and used a log instead of an axe to assault him.
He said he attacked him because he had called him a thief.
Appearing before a separate court, a 33-year-old man from Pelandaba suburb was sentenced to seven years in prison for physical abuse and two counts of attempted murder after he assaulted a couple over a cellphone handset.
Lazarus Mpala, who was represented by Ms Nonhlanhla Moyo, of Advocate SKM Sibanda and Partners, head butted Mr Moses Mushayabhandi before punching and slapping him.
He also hit him with an empty bottle on the stomach and shoulder before picking a brick and hitting him on the head.
When Mr Mushayabhandi’s wife, Ms Lineate Mutero, tried to intervene, Mpala punched and stabbed her with a broken bottle on the shoulder and finger and also on the left side of the abdomen.
Mpala, who is a neighbour to the couple, had borrowed a cellphone from them and got angry when they asked for it.
Online Reporter