Online Reporter
Mathew Masinge
TAPIWA Makore’s killers — Tafadzwa Shamba and Tapiwa Makore Senior — have had their death sentences substituted for life sentences after a Supreme Court appeal.
The appeal and ruling follows the abolition of the death penalty from the Zimbabwean laws.
Shamba and Makore Senior were convicted for the gruesome murder of the seven-year-old boy in September 2020 in Murewa. They were each sentenced to death in July 2023. However, in February this year, Shamba and Makore Senior exercised their automatic right to appeal at the Supreme Court where the apex court could not confirm the High Court’s decision.
The duo had challenged both their conviction and imposition of their death penalties.
Shamba, a herdsman, confessed to drugging, killing and dismembering the boy, while Makore Snr, who was the minor’s uncle, was convicted as an accomplice, having detained the boy in his home for hours on the day of the murder.
Although there was no direct evidence proving Makore Senior committed the offence, he was deeply implicated as he provided the slaughter house.
High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi sentenced both men to death, saying that the murder was committed under circumstances of extreme aggravation. Shamba’s confession revealed that the two conspired for days, if not weeks, to execute the crime and profit from selling the boy’s body parts to a witchdoctor for US$1 500.
The boy’s head, hands and legs were dismembered while some body parts were later recovered in various locations.
However, the head remains missing — a fact the High Court attributed to the ritualistic nature of the crime.
The discovery of the boy’s disfigured body ignited widespread outrage across the country amid demands for justice.
After the abolition of the death penalty, the prosecution is currently reviewing all death row cases with plans to remit them to the High Court for resentencing.
Bongani Ndlovu