Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku
CONVICTED in 2019 for the brutal murders of a taxi driver and a flea-market vendor, brothers Thinkwell Moyo and Fred Dube initially received death sentences. Their heinous crimes involved butchering the taxi driver, whose life ended abruptly after his throat was cut, and discarding his body in a shallow grave in the Macdonald area of Bulawayo.
They then mercilessly stabbed the vendor to death with a sharp implement, before stealing his Honda Fit vehicle, mobile phone, and various items of clothing.
However, following the abolition of the death penalty the previous year, a mandatory re-sentencing hearing was ordered. With a rekindled sense of hope, yearning for release from the harsh realities of prison life, the brothers sought the legal assistance of a pro-deo lawyer (a lawyer appointed by the court for those who cannot afford one), Bob Siansole. They appeared last Monday before Bulawayo High Court Judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo for the crucial hearing.
In their defence through Mr Siansole, he pleaded for mercy, stating: “They have spent four years in jail, were in solitary confinement, and had only a Bible to read, which they could not do due to illiteracy. Non-governmental organisations from the United States of America trained them in peace-making. They were unable to apologise to the relatives of the deceased because they were not on speaking terms with their own families.”
Representing the State, the deputy prosecutor general for the Southern region, Tariro Rosa Takuva, argued that the accused had committed two premeditated murders under severely aggravating circumstances. The prosecution noted that while the accused cited their four years on death row and 23 hours daily in solitary confinement as mitigation, the two deceased individuals were confined to the perpetual solitary confinement of their graves.
The prosecution dismissed Moyo and Dube’s claim that family estrangement prevented them from apologising to the bereaved, arguing that their awareness of three family deaths proved their contact with the outside world, and they should have made the effort to express remorse.
The court heard that relatives of Andile Ncube, in a victim impact statement, requested not to comment, stating the heartless murder of their son had left them heartbroken beyond measure and they did not wish to reopen old wounds.
In a victim impact statement read by their mother, Sipho Phiri, Dumenkosini Sibanda’s parents conveyed the profound weight of their son’s callous murder.
“His throat was cut open, and they killed him as if they were killing an animal. The whole family was left traumatised by the horrific murder, and we are still in pain. He was his mother’s only child and financial support, and now his life has been plunged into hardship.
“He left a young child needing his moral and financial support. As a family, we wish they should be sentenced to life imprisonment because after slitting his neck, his head was left hanging loosely. The death penalty was still befitting for their crime. We will never meet our son again while they are alive in prison.”
Justice Moyo then stated that the two accused individuals had been convicted on two counts of murder and initially sentenced to death in 2019, and that they were before the court for resentencing due to the abolition of capital punishment.
“The two are brothers, both first-time offenders and family men at the time of conviction. There are no other significant mitigating features. They committed both murders on the same night, which is in itself an aggravating factor, as is the fact that the murders occurred during a robbery. In the first count, the deceased was hired by the two accused, who pretended to be customers, directing the taxi to a secluded location where they butchered Mr Sibanda, stabbing him in the neck and cutting his jugular vein, before robbing him of his vehicle and mobile phone.
“They then used the stolen vehicle to embark on a robbery spree. These two murders were callous and barbaric. The deceased paid for the greed of the two accused with their lives. They failed even to send relatives or prison officers to convey their apologies, clearly having forgotten about the victims’ families until surprised by the abolition of the death penalty.
“Close relatives remain traumatised and unable to give a victim impact statement. This case is at the very top of murder cases, and the circumstances of the offences tilt the scales heavily towards a very lengthy prison term. The Supreme Court has confirmed that the death penalty committed in these circumstances deserves a high-end sentence.”
For count one, Moyo and Dube were each sentenced to life imprisonment, and for count two, they each received a further life imprisonment sentence.
The circumstances of the crimes revealed that Fred and Thinkwell, both from Toro Village in Lower Gweru, fatally attacked Dumenkosini Sibanda (26), a Bulawayo pirate taxi driver, on April 16, 2018, robbing him of his Honda Fit and a mobile phone. They subsequently travelled to Inyathi, where they fatally stabbed Andile Ncube (21), a flea market trader, stealing his merchandise which they loaded into the stolen car.
Dube and Moyo, born to the same mother but different fathers, were convicted of two counts of murder with actual intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo, who ruled that the murders were committed in aggravating circumstances.
