Midnight murder: Lupane man sentenced to 19 years for stabbing wife

Fairness Moyana

A 34-year-old Lupane man has been sentenced to 19 years in prison for brutally stabbing his estranged wife to death in a midnight attack that has shocked the rural community of Katshana Village.

Khulekani Mpofu was convicted of murder by Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Evangelista Kabasa, during the first term circuit held at Hwange Magistrates’ Courts.

The court heard that Mpofu fatally attacked his 31-year-old wife, Valentine Sibanda, in the early hours of September 2, 2025 at her father’s homestead in Katshana Village under Chief Mabhikwa in Lupane.

According to the State, led by prosecutor Martha Cheda, the couple had been experiencing marital problems, prompting Sibanda to leave the matrimonial home and seek refuge at her parents’ homestead.

At around 2AM, while Sibanda was asleep in her bedroom hut, Mpofu armed himself with a kitchen knife and launched a ferocious attack, stabbing her multiple times across the body.

Her screams tore through the stillness of the night. Sibanda’s niece, Sisasenkosi Mpofu (25), told the court she was jolted awake by her aunt’s cries for help. In panic, she alerted village head Joshua Moyo, who quickly mobilised other villagers — Smiling Moyo and Norman Moyo — to investigate.

But what they discovered was horrifying.

“As we approached the homestead, the accused fled in the opposite direction holding a knife,” one witness told the court.

Inside the hut, Sibanda’s lifeless body lay face down, in a pool of blood, naked, and bearing multiple stab wounds to the back, shoulders and chest.

Police officer Assistant Inspector Maxwell Machokoto of the Zimbabwe Republic Police confirmed the brutality of the attack. “The deceased had multiple stab wounds and was lying in a pool of blood,” he said.

A kitchen knife believed to have been used in the killing was later recovered following indications by witnesses. Sibanda’s body was taken to United Bulawayo Hospitals for a post mortem.

Mpofu fled the scene and spent several days on the run before handing himself over to police on September 5, 2025. Officers arrested him, and he later gave a warned and cautioned statement, which was confirmed in court.

After considering all the evidence, Justice Kabasa found Mpofu guilty of murder as defined under Section 47 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act. The court sentenced him to 19 years in prison, bringing closure to a case that has highlighted the deadly consequences of unresolved domestic conflict.

The brutal killing has left the Katshana community deeply shaken, as residents struggle to come to terms with the loss of a young woman whose life was ended in an act of extreme violence.