Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku
TWO cold-blooded killers who once stared down the hangman’s noose have had their death sentences swapped for life in prison, after the abolition of capital punishment spared them from execution.
Thinkwell Moyo and Fred Dube, dubbed the “Butcher Brothers,” were convicted in 2019 for two horrific murders that shocked the city. The pair slit a pirate taxi driver’s throat and dumped his body in a shallow grave, then stabbed a flea market vendor to death — all in one blood-soaked night of carnage.
The Bulawayo High Court, presided over by Justice Nokuthula Moyo, described their crimes as “callous and barbaric,” slamming the pair for showing no genuine remorse.
“Their victims paid with their lives. The accused remembered their families only when it was time to beg for mercy,” said the judge.
During the resentencing, defence lawyer Bob Siansole pleaded for leniency, saying the brothers endured four years in solitary confinement with only a Bible they couldn’t read due to illiteracy. He added that NGOs had trained them in peace-building, but they couldn’t apologise to victims’ families due to strained relations at home.
The prosecution hit back hard, arguing the victims were in “eternal solitary confinement” — the grave — and said the killers had ample opportunity to show remorse but didn’t.
In an emotional victim impact statement, the mother of Dumenkosini Sibanda painted a haunting picture:
“They cut his throat and left his head hanging. He was his mother’s only child… They killed him like an animal.”
The court heard the gruesome details:
On April 16, 2018, the duo lured Sibanda to a remote area, butchered him, stole his Honda Fit and phone, then used the stolen car to travel to Inyathi, where they stabbed Andile Ncube, a young vendor, and looted his stock.
Despite their appeals, the court ruled:
“These murders fall at the very top end of the scale. The death penalty was replaced by the next harshest sentence — life imprisonment for each count.”
Now confined to prison for the rest of their natural lives, Fred Dube and Thinkwell Moyo, half-brothers from Toro Village, Lower Gweru, have avoided the noose — but not the weight of their crimes.
