adminRichard Muponde Gwanda Correspondent
A FORMER prison officer from Gwanda has been jailed for 18 months for ordering a man he suspected to be cheating with his wife to hang himself from the roof trusses with the alleged love rival only surviving by stepping on a burglar bar.
Douglas Kamasha, 36, of Hlalani Kuhle, called Mthulisi Dube, 48, of Spitzkop, to his home on a cellphone after he suspected that he was cheating with his wife, Eugene Makazvarwa.
Kamasha pretended to be Makazvarwa and when Dube fell for the trick and reported at his alleged lover’s matrimonial home, the next 17 hours were hell for him.
He closed and locked the door before confronting Dube accusing him of having an affair with his wife.
Kamasha then took a metal bar and assaulted him all over the body and then gave him an electric cable to hang himself.
Dube survived by stepping on a buglar bar, the court heard.
Kamasha left Dube hanging and went outside to his vehicle where he cut an accelerator cable, battery cables, engine cooling cables, eight core wiring cables and shattered the windscreen.
He also deflated the vehicle’s four tyres.
Kamasha went back into the house and conducted a “body search” on the complainant.
He took Dube’s two cellphones, car keys, national identity card, driver’s licence and $450.
After that he removed the complainant from the noose and detained him at his house for 17 hours.
Kamasha later demanded $3,000 and forced Dube to write a letter agreeing to pay the money by December 27, 2015, before releasing him.
The incident occurred on December 22 last year.
Magistrate Nazombe sentenced Kamasha to 24 months in prison for unlawful detention and six months were suspended on condition of good behaviour.
On malicious damage to property, four months of the sentence were suspended on condition that he restitutes Dube, but the amount was not stated in court.
Kamasha was also fined $50 or 15 days in prison for assault.
Online Reporter