Chronicle Editor
FORMER nightclub bouncer and illegal taxi rank kingpin, Stewart Chiweshe, commonly known as Shutto, has died.
Chiweshe died in a car accident along Plumtree Road on Saturday night together with his young brother Ashley Chiweshe.
The former nightclub bouncer was known for being the muscle behind the infamous illegal taxi rank on corner Third Avenue and Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo Street, where passengers travelling to suburbs such as Northend and Saucerstown board vehicles.
As news of the passing away of Chiweshe trickled in, his friends and relatives started sending condolence messages on social media platforms.
“I can’t believe that the two of you, Stewart Chiweshe and Ashley Chiweshe, are gone. Gone too soon,” wrote Cecil Chiweshe.
“I was with you on Friday and this is how you decided to say good bye Stewart. My heart is broken,” said Stanley Paradzai.
Liberty Zhou said he was still in disbelief that the two brothers’ lives were taken away on the same day and asked the Chiweshe family to find comfort in the Lord.
Illegal taxi operators reportedly paid the duo of the late Chiweshe and his close friend Tinashe ‘Mhofu’ Marima to ferry passengers at the taxi rank. Failure to pay the daily charges demanded by the two bouncers resulted in drivers being banished from working at the taxi rank.
In 2015, the pair was sentenced to 18 months in prison after they beat up a Bulawayo commuter omnibus driver to a pulp until he lost consciousness for allegedly “stealing” customers.
Chiweshe was sentenced to 18 months in prison of which six months were suspended on condition of good behaviour. He served a year in jail.
Marima was sentenced to 19 months in prison of which 13 months were suspended on condition of good behaviour while a further six months were suspended on condition that he performed 220 hours of community service at Pumula Police Station.
The magistrate who sentenced them at the time said the courts regarded fights among touts over routes as a serious offence and that the crime was prevalent in the city.
They had assaulted the driver until he lost consciousness and was ferried to Mpilo Central Hospital. He suffered a dislocated shoulder and head fracture. Police were yet to issue a comment on the accident.
Online Reporter