Online Reporter
Yeukai Karengezeka
Court Correspondent
One of the suspects in the brutal murder of businessman Joseph Mutangadura has appeared in court.
Ephraim Alphas (37) faced murder and armed robbery charges when he appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Musaiona Shotgamne yesterday.
He was advised to apply for bail at the High Court.
According to the State, the incident occurred on August 17, 2025, at Mutangadura’s Hideout Farm at around 11:15 pm when Bonus Kadiwa, a security guard on duty, heard dogs barking and went to investigate.
Kadiwa reportedly encountered two men crawling near the gardener’s cottage. As he approached them, he was grabbed from behind and threatened with a pistol.
Alphas and his accomplices tied his hands with shoelaces removed from his shoes and demanded to know the entrance to Mutangadura’s house.
Kadiwa, who had only started work at the farmhouse that day, told them he did not know.
The suspects, numbering about seven and wearing balaclavas, proceeded to break into the house armed with crowbars, hammers, and pistols.
They took Kadiwa’s cellphone and forced him to lie face down in the dining room as six of the intruders entered the house, leaving one to guard him.
In the southern wing of the house, one of the suspects found 14-year-old Ryan Mutangadura, the deceased’s son, asleep in his bedroom.
Meanwhile, other suspects broke into the main bedroom where Joseph Mutangadura and his wife, Patience Dambudzo Mutangadura, were sleeping.
The suspects shot Joseph Mutangadura in the chest, killing him instantly, and began ransacking the bedroom for valuables.
Ryan was brought to join Kadiwa in the dining room before being taken to his parents’ bedroom, where he saw his father lying in a pool of blood while the intruders continued looting.
After the suspects fled the scene, Kadiwa managed to crawl to the bedroom, where Patience, who was unconscious, was revived and untied him.
Ryan then used his mother’s cellphone to contact a family friend, Nyarai Rukundu, who alerted other relatives.
The family rushed to the scene and took the now-deceased Mutangadura, along with Patience and Ryan, to Eden Clinic in Ruwa.
Sadly, Mutangadura was pronounced dead on arrival.
Patience was later transferred to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals for further treatment, while Mutangadura’s body was taken to the Parirenyatwa Hospital mortuary.
The court heard that investigations are ongoing as authorities work to apprehend the remaining suspects.
Peter Tanyanyiwa