Online Reporter
THERE are people who accept disappointment with dignity.
They sigh, grumble under their breath and move on with life.
Then there is Tinashe Ndihana, a domestic worker from Chief Marange’s area in Manicaland province, who thought the best way to deal with the disappointment of being asked to stop eating unripe oranges was to burn down his employer’s property.
That spectacular display of poor judgment has now earned the 32-year-old a one-way ticket to prison after the Mutare Magistrates’ Court convicted him of malicious damage to property and sentenced him to an effective 26 months behind bars.
According to court proceedings, the drama unfolded on June 27, 2026, in Chindoti village under Chief Marange.
Ndihana, who worked as a domestic worker for a 64-year-old woman, had apparently developed a healthy appetite for unripe oranges growing in his employer’s orchard.
Unfortunately for him, the employer was less enthusiastic about seeing her fruit disappear before it had ripened and ordered him to stop eating them. A reasonable person would probably have accepted the instruction, perhaps grumbled a little and moved on with life.
Ndihana, however, chose a response that can only be described as catastrophically disproportionate. Instead of walking away from the argument, he allegedly armed himself with matches and transformed his employer’s homestead into a disaster scene. His first target was a thatched kitchen hut, which he deliberately set ablaze.
Apparently satisfied that one burning building was not enough to express his displeasure over being denied access to unripe oranges, he then moved on to a nearby two-roomed house and set that on fire as well.
He armed himself with an axe and threatened to kill anyone who dared approach the inferno or attempt to extinguish the flames, forcing would-be rescuers to keep their distance while the fire consumed everything in its path.
By the time the blaze had died down, the destruction was almost total.
The kitchen hut and the two-roomed house had been reduced to ashes.
Along with the buildings went 16 bags of maize, five bags of groundnuts, two bags of round nuts, two bags of rapoko, four bags of fertiliser, six bags of cement and assorted household groceries.
The total value of the destroyed buildings and property was assessed at US$10 193.
When the matter reached the Mutare Magistrates’ Court, Ndihana was found guilty of malicious damage to property.
The court sentenced him to 36 months’ imprisonment.
However, 10 months of the sentence were suspended on condition he compensates the complainant by paying back the full value of the damaged property, leaving him with an effective prison term of 26 months.
The case serves as yet another reminder that anger is a terrible financial adviser.
A disagreement over fruit that probably cost only a few cents ended with property worth more than US$10 000 destroyed, a criminal conviction, nearly two-and-a-half years in prison and an obligation to repay the victim.
That has to rank among the most expensive unripe oranges anyone has ever eaten.
