adminSenior Court Reporter
A Bulawayo man claims to have been possessed by evil spirits when he went on a rampage and torched his employer’s house where six family members were sleeping before striking their neighbour with a machete for trying to assist in putting out the fire.Nkosinathi Sine, 25, of Gumtree was not asked to plead to seven counts of attempted murder when he appeared before regional magistrate Mark Dzira.
He was remanded in custody to October 10.
Magistrate Dzira ordered that Sine be examined by two medical doctors to ascertain his mental status due to his incoherent responses.
When asked why he torched the hut, Sine said: “I was possessed by evil spirits, I didn’t even know what I was doing at the time.
“There’s a person who once came to me and offered to exorcise those evil spirits but he failed to do so and they (evil spirits) continue to terrorise me.”
Prosecuting, Tinashe Dzipe narrated how on August 23 shortly after 3AM, Charles Kamusoko met Sine standing in the corridor of his house as he was heading to the toilet. Kamusoko became suspicious and went back to his bedroom and alerted his wife Jesse Mbiza.
The court heard that a few minutes later, the couple heard a sputtering sound and on investigating they discovered that the house was on fire.
While outside trying to establish the source of the fire, they spotted Sine from a distance and he started throwing stones at them.
Sensing danger, Kamusoko quickly alerted the other four occupants who were sleeping in the house and they woke up and dashed out.
Kamusoko called his neighbour, Nyasha Ncube to help him put out the fire that was gutting the house.
“When Ncube arrived at the scene he found Sine behaving in a violent manner and on trying to restrain him, Sine struck him with a machete on the head,” said Dzipe.
Ncube sustained a depressed skull fracture and lacerations on his shoulder. Sine was apprehended and taken to the police station.
Online Reporter