Chronicle Editor
Midlands Bureau
HIGH Court judge, Justice Naison Chivayo, has sentenced a Gweru artisanal miner to life imprisonment for a brutal bar attack, where he used an AK-47 Colombia knife to stab two people including a teenager, resulting in one fatality.
Courage Hwami (35) of Mkoba 13 suburb in Gweru appeared before Justice Chivayo facing one count of murder and the other of attempted murder at the Gweru High Court circuit on Saturday.
Hwami entered a plea of not guilty to both counts but was convicted of murder with actual intent and attempted murder after a full trial.
Justice Chivayo handed him a life sentence for the murder charge and a further 10 years for the second count. Both sentences will run concurrently.
Hwami claimed that as an artisanal miner, he carried a knife or metal rod or some other weapon for protection. It was the State’s case that on December 4 last year around 3am at Vhudzijena Night Club, Mkoba 16 Business Centre, Hwami and the now deceased Courage Sibanda had a misunderstanding over an undisclosed issue.
The court heard that Nomore Hove (35), the complainant who was employed as a caretaker intervened and solved the dispute.
After a while, Hwami advanced towards Sibanda and stabbed him with an AK-47 Columbia knife once on the left side of the chest and once on the back.
The court heard that Sibanda sustained a deep stab wound on the left side of the chest and a deep stab wound on the right side of the back.
Sibanda ran out of the bar where he collapsed and died. Hwami then chased Hove outside the bar before stabbing him once on the chest with the same knife and fled the scene towards Mkoba 13 suburb.
The complainant was stabbed on the chest and sustained a stab wound and was referred to Gweru Provincial Hospital where he was treated and discharged.
The matter was reported to the police leading to the arrest of accused and the recovery of an AK-47 Columbia knife.
Sibanda’s body was conveyed to United Bulawayo Hospitals where a full postmortem examination was conducted by Dr Maibelys Gavilan Acosta who concluded the cause of death was hypovolemic shock, lungs laceration hemothorax and stab wound chest.
Online Reporter