Online Reporter
Anesu Dhliwayo
TWO friends who turned a village bar into a crime scene and a donkey cart into a hearse will rot behind bars for 27 years after being found guilty of a savage murder that shocked Lower Gweru.
Trust Khoza and Hloniphani Nyoni were convicted of the cold-blooded killing of popular local businessman Choice Ncube, whom they abducted from Folomani Bar at Masa Business Centre on 26 June 2018.
According to a chilling statement from the National Prosecuting Authority of Zimbabwe (NPAZ), the violence was sparked by a grudge from 2017. Nyoni confronted Ncube inside the bar and attempted to strike him with an axe, but alert patrons disarmed him.
That’s when the horror truly began.
“The duo dragged Ncube out of the bar, forced him into a donkey-drawn scotch cart, and took him to a secluded spot where they unleashed hours of torment,” said the NPAZ.
Armed with logs, sticks, a knobkerrie, and a rubber whip, the pair assaulted Ncube from midnight until dawn — a five-hour torture session that left villagers traumatised.
Despite desperate pleas from onlookers, the beating didn’t stop.
By sunrise, Ncube’s naked, swollen, and bloodied body was found unconscious. He died on arrival at Gweru Provincial Hospital.
Neighbourhood watch members swiftly pounced on the pair, arresting them before they could flee.
Now, nearly seven years later, justice has been served. The killers will spend nearly three decades behind bars, haunted by the night they turned a petty grudge into a gruesome murder.
