Online Reporter
Danisa Masuku [email protected]
A MAN who allegedly killed his younger brother after being accused of being lazy and reluctant to help support their elderly mother has been acquitted.
Thembelani Dlamini (45) of Fort Rixon in Matabeleland South Province appeared on Monday before Bulawayo Regional Magistrate, Ms Sibonginkosi Mkandla, for sentencing.
In delivering the sentence, the magistrate said the witnesses corroborated one another’s evidence.
“The State failed to prove its case beyond reasonable doubt. The witnesses, who included the mother of the deceased, told the court that the deceased came home drunk and met the accused at their mother’s homestead. “He started accusing his brother of being lazy and reluctant to help support their elderly mother. The deceased was armed with a hoe and wanted to strike the accused.
The mother of the accused said the deceased was the first to attack the accused and the accused acted in self-defence. Furthermore, the mother of the deceased told this court that prior to the incident she had tried to talk to the deceased to stop accusing the accused of being lazy, but he did not heed her advice,” she said.
Prosecuting, Ms Tsungie Mutapi said the deceased and the accused were brothers.
“On 7 June 2025, at around 3PM, the accused and the deceased went to their mother Lina Dlamini’s homestead in the same village for supper.
They sat in the dining room where an argument ensued, with the deceased stating that the accused was lazy and was not assisting him to support their mother. The argument escalated into a fight and they ran out of the dining room, chasing each other into the darkness. During the commotion, the accused armed himself with a hoe,” said Ms Mutapi.
The court heard that the accused struck the deceased with a hoe once on his right calf and left him lying on the ground bleeding.
The accused rushed to inform his mother and his neighbour that he had injured the deceased during the fight. The accused looked for transport to ferry the deceased to hospital.
Ms Mutapi told the court that the accused’s mother rushed to the scene of the crime and found the deceased still alive and bleeding, but unable to talk.
She went to seek assistance from other villagers and when she returned, he was dead.
