Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka-Chisepo
Court Correspondent
Masvingo High Court judge Justice Christopher Dube-Banda has jailed a Gutu man for 15 years after he fatally stabbed his 64-year-old uncle in the chest following a confrontation over the use of obscene language.
Tatenda Mutonho Maturure was convicted of murder despite claiming that he had acted in self-defence.
The court heard that on June 27, 2025, at around 7 pm, Tatenda was returning from a traditional gathering when he began shouting obscenities as he approached the homestead of the deceased, Torerai Mutonho, in Maturure Village, Chief Gutu.
Torerai, who was inside his kitchen, went outside to reprimand him. Shortly afterwards, Torerai returned to the kitchen bleeding from a stab wound to the chest.
He told his wife, Ngonidzashe Ruocha, that Maturure had stabbed him. He died before he could be taken to hospital. Maturure admitted stabbing his uncle but maintained that he had acted in self-defence.
He told the court that Torerai had struck him with a stone before grabbing him by the belt, producing a knife and attempting to stab him. Maturure claimed he wrestled the knife from Torerai and accidentally stabbed him in the chest during the struggle.
However, Justice Dube-Banda rejected his version, describing it as false and inconsistent with his earlier statement to the police. In his confirmed warned-and-cautioned statement, Maturure admitted stabbing Torerai after being struck with what he described as a brick.
The court also admitted Torerai’s dying declaration identifying Maturure as his attacker, finding that it was corroborated by Maturure’s own statement.
Justice Dube-Banda found that Maturure deliberately targeted his uncle’s chest with the knife and that the stab wound caused his death. A post-mortem examination established that Torerai died from haemorrhagic shock caused by the stab wound.
In sentencing, the court considered that Maturure was a first offender with no previous convictions and was 21 years old when he committed the offence.
The judge also noted that the murder was not premeditated and appeared to have resulted from a spontaneous confrontation.
However, the use of a knife to stab Torerai in the chest was considered a serious aggravating factor and the court further considered the impact of the offence on the deceased’s family, as Torerai left behind his wife and a five-year-old child.
