Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike
CONVICTED killers Tafadzwa Shamba and Tapiwa Makore Senior, who murdered seven-year-old Tapiwa Makore Junior in cold blood in September 2020, were sentenced to life imprisonment when they appeared before Justice Gibson Mandaza for resentencing on Wednesday.
The two were convicted in July 2023 and were among inmates on death row whose cases were referred back to court following the abolition of the death penalty in 2024.
They were part of a batch of 39 inmates whose cases were set down for resentencing in the first term of the High Court.
The remaining cases are set to be completed on Tuesday.
Among the pending cases is that of Charles Kavhumbura, who strangled his seven-year-old daughter and dumped her body in a nearby pond in a desperate attempt to evade paying US$30 in maintenance fees for her upkeep on October 14, 2017.
The girl and her brother had visited him at his grinding mill at Susman Farm in Juru, Murewa, after being sent by their mother, Pedzisai Kachepa, to collect money for their upkeep.
Kavhumbura, by then, had moved on and married another woman following his divorce from Kachepa.
In his bid to evade the burden of paying money for his daughter’s upkeep, he strangled her and dumped her body in a nearby pond, approximately 750 metres away from the mill.
The body was discovered the following day by a student who was fetching water, leading to an immediate investigation that resulted in Kavhumbura’s arrest.
He was then taken to the High Court, where he appeared before Justice Chitapi, who sentenced him to death upon conviction.
Justice Chitapi stated that his actions were not only heinous but also indicative of a moral failure. Kavhumbura was sentenced in 2022.
In a separate case, three armed robbers — Kiribon Jirimadenga, Richard John, and Doesmatter Vhore — were sentenced to death for their roles in a series of brutal murders targeting white commercial farmers in the Guruve and Centenary areas of Mashonaland Central province.
On September 2, 2011, the trio proceeded to Simapiri Farm in Centenary, where they used a ladder to scale a security fence and gained entry into the farm’s main house.
They robbed and killed Zietsman by striking him with an angle iron bar.
They ransacked his house, struck Zietsman’s wife, Phillipa, unconscious, and proceeded to steal a 32 Colt revolver, shoes, clothes, cellphones, and blankets before disappearing into the night.
A month later, the three again pounced at Mozoona Farm in Guruve, where they used a metal hoe handle to bludgeon the farmer to death.
This was after they had tied his wife, Barbra Ervine’s hands with a wire, ransacked the house, and stole various property, including $5 030.
Three years later, Jirimadenga, John, and Vhore stormed Muzhanje Farm on May 10, 2014 and attacked farm owner Malcom Francis and his daughter, May.
The trio waylaid Francis and struck him twice with an angle iron bar on the head before attacking his daughter in the same manner.
They both later died. Jirimadenga, John, and Vhore were convicted at the High Court and sentenced to death in 2018.
Cousins, Romeo Jambura and Norest Tamangani, were convicted for killing taxi driver Taruvinga Matiza after a failed robbery in November 2018 in Harare.
They, along with an accomplice, lured Matiza under the pretence of needing a ride, only to violently attack him and dispose of his body.
The duo was sentenced to death when they appeared in court on murder charges.
Armed robbers, Makaika Milanzi and Antony Kumbula, were convicted in 2017 for killing orthopaedic surgeon Dr Chris Mushonga, who was the husband of Ambassador Priscilla Misihairabwi-Mushonga.
