Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday News Reporter
NOTORIOUS double murder convict Rodney Tongai Jindu, who earlier this year officially escaped the hangman’s noose following the abolishment of the death penalty has declared that he has turned his life over to God.
He is now seeking forgiveness from the families of the two men he killed.
In an exclusive interview at Khami Maximum Prison, his first since his arrest and conviction for the brutal murders of Mboneli Ncube and Cyprian Kudzurunga in 2017, Jindu said he has dedicated his life to God and is now studying for a degree in theology.
He made this decision following the commutation of his death sentence to life imprisonment earlier this year.
On Friday, Jindu stood shoulder to shoulder with 155 others as they were baptised by Seventh Day Adventist ministers at Khami Maximum Security Prison, marking what he describes as a new beginning in his spiritual journey.
Before he was immersed in the water — a symbolic cleansing of his sins — Jindu sat on a bucket, nodding thoughtfully as he listened to a sermon on the biblical King David who was forgiven despite committing adultery and murder.
As he smiled at the hopeful message, two gold teeth glinted in the pale winter sun — a small flash of brightness in an otherwise sombre setting.
Jindu broke down in tears at the Bulawayo High Court earlier this year when his death sentence was replaced with two life terms, a decision made after President Mnangagwa’s 2023 move to abolish capital punishment.
While that change in law was a result of years of dedicated advocacy by many, including President Mnangagwa himself, Jindu believes that it was a piece of divine intervention made on his behalf.
“When I started praying, I told God that if somehow I could be spared the death sentence, I would dedicate the rest of my life to Him —either through ministry or humanitarian work. When I went for resentencing, I left everything in God’s hands. I said, ‘Lord, if it is your will that I remain on death row, so be it. If it is your will that I am spared, so be it.’ I am fully surrendered to His plan for me.”
According to Jindu, the turning point came after the death of his brother in a car crash in November 2023.
“We were very close and when he died, I kept thinking about what would happen to his young daughter. I felt helpless. I hadn’t even seen him since the August Heroes holidays. That’s when I turned to God — I knew only He could carry that burden,” he said.
When Justice Nokuthula Moyo slapped Jindu with the death sentence in 2021, she had emphasised that one of the reasons why capital punishment was necessary was that Jindu had not shown any compassion or remorse, highlighted by his failure to send emissaries to apologise to the parents of the two men he had killed.
On the sidelines of his baptism on Friday, Jindu said that although words would never heal the wounds his actions had inflicted, he had already initiated the process to tender apologies to his victims’ families.
Helping him in this process would be SDA member and the founder of Jesus Behind Bars, Mr. Dumisani Nkomo, himself an ex-convict who served a 14-year stretch at Khami.
“On my part, I have spoken to my family and I have asked them to help me out with that. They have said that they will initiate the process and after that, I hope I can begin to make amends. The one person who I believe will help me with that is Mr. Nkomo.
“I intend to send him on my behalf and seek a chance for me to give my apology again. I continue to say I’m sorry for what I did. I know that sorry does not sound like much given what I did but I want them to know that this is from my heart and I mean it 100 percent,” Jindu said.
As he stood with other inmates after his baptism, shivering under the mid afternoon sun, Jindu said, like other men condemned to death, including the notorious Stephen Chidhumo, who reportedly found God before his execution in 2002, he had forged a closer relationship with his maker as he counted down to what he thought would be his eventual death.
“Thankfully, at the death row section we had a Bible and during my time there, I got to read it a lot. Over time, I got closer and closer to God. When I got here, I was able to enrol in the Greater Grace Theology degree programme. I’m still going and I am quite confident that as long as God is with me, everything will work out for the best,” he said.
His baptism on Friday was a new chapter in his journey of redemption, he said and as a born-again Christian, he was now eager to live an exemplary life behind bars.
“I feel new and I feel good. I am grateful for the opportunity and I have deep gratitude to the Adventist community, particularly Mr. Nkomo. He is someone who has been through circumstances similar to mine in terms of prison life, so I appreciate what he has done for me.
“I feel like this is a new beginning, a new dawn for me. This is a new chapter in terms of my spiritual life. I was living a dark life. I was a bad person. I would like to thank God because, being baptised like this, I feel that a certain filth is being washed away from me. I feel like after this, I have been cleansed,” he said.
