Online Reporter
YOU CAN’T MAKE THIS UP
IT IS hard to imagine that failing a police recruitment test could be a death sentence.
However, for 19-year-old Ngonidzashe Munyoro, it tragically was.
On July 29, 2025, Ngonidzashe left the family home in Waterfalls with hope in his heart and his father’s dreams on his shoulders.
He just did not fathom the weight of the old man’s dreams. His father — 41-year-old Gibson, a security officer — had sent him to Mkushi Academy (formerly Morris Depot) for police recruitment interviews. To Gibson, this was a path he believed would secure his son’s future and bring honour to the family.
But dreams are fragile things. Four days later, on August 2, Ngonidzashe came home not with a uniform, but with the quiet shame of rejection.
The police had deemed him “not fit for duty”.
What, however, followed was unthinkable.
Gibson’s disappointment twisted into rage.
He allegedly tied his son’s hands and legs, slid an iron bar between them, suspended him between two tables and beat him with a baton.
His son cried out for help. However, those cries were swallowed by fear in the room.
Gibson threatened anyone who dared to intervene. By the time the boy’s mother, Ruvimbo Masunga, arrived after hearing about the attack, the light in her son’s eyes was already dimming. She fought to stop the violence, pulled him inside with the help of others and tried to save him. But it was too late.
In the house where he had taken his first steps as a child, Ngonidzashe took his last breath as a young man.
Gibson was arrested shortly afterwards.
Police said they are still investigating the case.
“Police are investigating a murder case involving a teenager and his biological father. Full details will be released in due course,” said Harare provincial police spokesperson Inspector Luckmore Chakanza.
A life has been cut short, a future stolen. The father, who, if convicted, will possibly spend his years haunted by the silence where his son’s voice used to be.
