adminDaniel Nemukuyu Investigations Editor
BORN in Murehwa some 40 years ago, Tafadzwa Shamba went to Kwenda High School where he passed his Ordinary Level.
Unfortunately, he did not proceed with his studies.
His love for drugs and alcohol, especially the illicit brew, kachasu, had gotten the better of him. As a result, he did not get formal employment, not that it matters.
His father died when he was 25, while his mother also passed away in 2011.
Thus began a tale of destruction for the man, now already hooked on drugs and booze.
Soon after his mother died, Tafadzwa went on a rampage, selling almost everything at his parents’ homestead at Chinyani Village under Chief Mangwende in Murehwa.
The family Isuzu pick-up truck was the first to go, followed by three beasts also left by his parents, that went for a song to support his habits.
In a typical prodigal son’s style, although he did not appear to have come back to his senses like the man in the biblical story, he sold the remaining chickens, household property, clothes, blankets and kitchenware.
Whether or not it was by destiny, he ended up being employed by Mr Tapiwa Makore (senior) at Makore Village as a herdsman where his appetite for money saw him being arrested for participating in the ritual murder of the seven-year-old Tapiwa Makore reportedly on the instructions of his boss.
They are both in remand prison on charges of murdering the boy.
This week, Tafadzwa admitted to killing the boy, giving a chilling account to police detectives of how he cut off his head, arms and legs before carrying the parts to his employer’s homestead.
When The Herald visited Tafadzwa’s homestead at Chinyani Village in Murehwa last week, sources confirmed Tafadzwa’s love for money and how he sold all family assets.
He reportedly sold an Isuzu pick-up truck to a local person for a song, two water pumps and ploughs.
As if that was not enough, Tafadzwa is said to have removed roofing tiles from an eight-roomed house built by his parents, windows, doors and door-frames for the market.
Tafadzwa’s uncle Mr Gaylord Shamba narrated how his nephew stripped the homestead.
“When my brother (Tafadzwa’s father) died some 15 years ago, the eight-roomed house that you see was complete and it had expensive roofing tiles and trusses,” he said.
“Tafadzwa sold all the tiles, trusses, doors, door-frames, window frames and panes. He also stripped that smaller three-roomed cottage of asbestos, windows and doors.”
At the time of his arrest, Tafadzwa was sleeping in a thatched kitchen hut that had no door and windows. He was using a dusty, old blanket.
He was using a black plastic sheet as a door and windowpane, with nothing to show for all the family wealth he had squandered.
Drugs and kachasu had gotten the better of him.
Online Reporter