Tout up for murder over $350

Crime Reporter 

A 40-year-old Harare tout has been arrested on allegations of killing the man who snatched the $350 the tout had been paid for loading a mushikashika near Parirenyatwa Hospital.

The theft and the killing punches happened along Leopold Takawira Street on Friday last week at around 3.15pm.

Blessing Stephen is alleged to have punched Mafu Sipho (58) and he later died. A report was made to the police leading to the arrest of Stephen.

National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the incident and said investigations were in progress. 

Police are also investigating a fatal hit-and-run road traffic accident that occurred at the 38 km peg along the Harare-Makumbe Road on Saturday at around 6.45am where an unknown motorist driving an unidentified vehicle hit a pedestrian and sped off. The pedestrian died on the spot.

The numbers of motorists who hit pedestrians or other vehicles on the roads and speed off without rendering assistance has been on the increase with the police recording about 2 500 hit-and-run accidents in the first half of the “bloody” 2022 that has seen the country losing 984 lives on the roads so far.

Many of the hit-and-run accidents involve pedestrians struck and killed or injured while crossing roads and the motorists just flee without rendering assistance or making a report, a serious offence and one that magistrates tend to impose high sentences since the assistance might well have saved a life.

Police are still hunting down a number of such motorists and a list has since been compiled for apprehension.

Some of the drivers have already been arrested and if there was a death then they are charged with culpable homicide as well as with failure to stop and render assistance. There have been cases, where the pedestrian was partly at fault, where the sentence for failing to stop is far higher than the sentence for contributing to the death.

In an interview recently, police reiterated that the law demands that drivers must stop after being involved in an accident.