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Danisa Masuku
WHEN a Bulawayo regional magistrate handed down a ruling and uttered the words: “You repeatedly and continuously cut his leg as if you were chopping firewood and cut his leg into pieces,” tears streamed down Memory Mukwidza’s cheeks, who is wife to the victim, Listen Rusimba.
This was early this week when Sibanengi Ncube (21) and Julius Maromo (40) from Fort Rixon in Matabeleland South Province were in the dock before Bulawayo magistrate Dambudzo Malunga for brutally attacking Rusimba with a machete and a knobkerrie all over the body over US$6 that Rusimba owed them for game meat.
To the utter shock of the magistrate and the public gallery, the pair appeared undisturbed and not remorseful, yet they faced an attempted murder charge. Rusimba, who spent six months at United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH) was left with a gaping scar on his head, an amputated leg and a recurring tumour after they shoved rubble into his mouth so that he could not scream for help when they were brutally attacking him.
While he was lying on the ground bleeding from the cut-off leg, they set dogs on him which licked blood which gushed from the leg. A villager from Gushungo Village in Fort Rixon heard high-pitched screams and rushed to the scene. He tried to restrain the violent pair but he failed as they were aggressive and threatened to kill him. They branded themselves “chiefs” of the area, it was reported.
Fighting for his life, the injured Rusimba fired two gun warning shots to disperse the marauding pair but they were not deterred and in self-defence, he shot Maromo in the leg. At that instance, Ncube hammered Rusimba with a knobkerrie on the head. Maromo then snatched the gun from Rusimba and tried to shoot him, but the weapon reportedly malfunctioned.
Mukwidza was called to the scene and upon arrival, she collapsed after she saw her husband in a pool of blood while his leg was hanging by a piece of flesh. Later, she hired a car to ferry him to United Bulawayo Hospital (UBH) and paid with a cow. She told the court that she spent 18 months visiting her husband in hospital.
In a victim impact statement, she said: “I’m traumatised. Maromo and Ncube threatened to attack my children and anyone who wanted to be a witness. While we were in hospital we lost nine cattle, seven male cows were castrated, three rims of barbed wire were stolen and four tyres of our truck were stolen from our home.”
She said the brutal and merciless attack on her husband who was a breadwinner plunged her life and their four minor children into hardship.
“The attack rendered my husband incapable of working. We have four school-going children and we now sell cows for their upkeep and school fees. We also sell cattle to buy medication because he has to undergo medical check-ups and has already undergone multiple surgeries to remove a tumour in his chest.”
However, Maromo and his partner in crime denied ever chopping off Rusimba’s leg with a machete and they also denied shoving rubble into his mouth. Instead, they said Rusimba bribed an investigations officer to lie on his behalf before the court.
After the trial, however, the magistrate said Rusimba, his wife and their witnesses gave consistent and credible evidence which corroborated Rusimba’s testimony.
She said Maromo and Ncube’s defence was vague, and poor and they acted in common purpose to commit the crime. She further said their defence to accuse the investigations officer of bringing the knobkerrie to the scene was not true, unheard of and senseless.
On the other hand, Rusimba, a former soldier, said if he had intended to gun Maromo down he could have done so and only acted in self-defence when he shot him. After being found guilty by the court, the pair is now waiting for sentencing.
Online Reporter