Ritual murders trial opens

High Court yesterday with the trio denying the charges.
Mncedisi Ndlovu (18), Bhekimpilo Mthethwa (18), both from Gumani village in Stanmore and Nhlanhla Sibanda (33), of Ntengwele village, Ntalale area of Gwanda, pleaded not guilty to four counts of murder before Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese sitting with Mrs Isabel Mashengele and Mr Stanley Hadebe as assessors.
The trio, through their pro deo lawyers, Mr Charles Moyo, of Moyo and Nyoni for Ndlovu, Ndabezinhle Mazibuko, of Calderwood, Bryce Hendrie and Partners for Sibanda and Mr Nathaniel Tawanda Mashayamombe, of Mashayamombe and Company for Mthethwa, denied ever committing the heinous murders or mutilation of the dead.
They want the State led by Mr Whisper Mabaudhi, of the Attorney-General’s Office to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that they committed the offences. They all claim that they were severely assaulted by the police after their arrest.
The State case is that between 18 November and 8 December 2010, the trio allegedly killed four people in the Stanmore area and allegedly mutilated their bodies before dumping the bodies in the bush or burying them in shallow graves.
Some of the dead people’s property was recovered allegedly through their indications.
Mr Mabaudhi led evidence from the daughter of Meglina Mahlangu (62), Ms Chelesile Mahlangu, who testified that on 7 November 2010, her mother left her homestead in Stanmore coming to Bulawayo to collect money that had been sent from South Africa.
She testified that during the same month, her sister in Bulawayo sent a message to say the mother was to come to Bulawayo and that she told the sister that their mother had in fact come to Bulawayo but had not returned.
The sister told her that the mother had left Bulawayo on 18 November and from that date they started searching for her to as far as Gwatemba in Filabusi and the rest of Stanmore but without any success. “On a date I cannot remember but during the month of December 2010, I received information while at Stanmore business centre that there was a woman who had been found dead and that another one had been robbed by unknown assailants,” testified Ms Mahlangu.
She said the search for her mother continued until some human remains were found at a certain hill and when she was called to the scene, she managed to identify her mother’s clothes.
Some metres away from where the remains had been found, she found the mother’s photographs, NSSA card and other items.
Ms Sibusisiwe Ncube, the mother of Nothando Siziba (20) and grandmother of Patience Ndlovu, the seven-month-old baby girl who are subjects in the second and third counts, testified that her children had left for Bulawayo on 27 November 2010 and were supposed to come back on 5 December 2010.
They did not come back and she later received a message from her daughter in Bulawayo who wanted to know if her younger sister had safely arrived home.
This led her to start searching for the children in the Stanmore area until she received information sometime in December that people in the area had discovered a woman buried in a shallow grave and that a child’s skull had also been recovered.
She went to the scene and managed to identify her daughter by her leg before the body had been exhumed.
Although she was present during the exhumation and had identified baby clothes that had been recovered at the scene on a hill, she did not see the body of her child when it was pulled out.
She was later invited to Gwanda Police Station where she met the trio and she claimed that Sibanda on being questioned why he had done what they had done, told her and those present that he did not know what had got into them.
She testified that Sibanda said they had been sent by a businessman operating in Stanmore only identified as Nhliziyo, to look for breasts, hands and women’s private parts.
It was her testimony that Sibanda said Nhliziyo had told them that he wanted 10 breasts, hands and private parts.
Village head Macloud Ngwenya testified that on 15 December 2010, he was herding his cattle near Tailor Mizhi Mountain when he spotted baby clothes scattered around. His dogs then led him to a shallow grave where there was a human leg protruding. He went and informed other villagers and the police were later informed.
According to the post-mortem reports in respect of Siziba, her daughter Patience and Meglina, the pathologist said the cause of death was indeterminate as Siziba’s body was at an advanced stage of decomposition while only human remains in the form of bones were found in respect of Meglina and the infant.
In respect of Ntombana Moyo (81), the pathologist concluded that the cause of death was a depressed skull as a result of a head injury caused by an assault.
The trial continues today with the State calling more witnesses.