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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
A TRADITIONAL healer who was accused of fatally assaulting a mental patient while allegedly exorcising her of demons has been acquitted of murder by the High Court.
Melusi Shumba was being accused of causing the death of Ms Precious Mundando nine years ago when he allegedly assaulted her during the course of treatment.
In acquitting Shumba, Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Francis Bere ruled that investigations by the police were shoddy. The judge said the court could not dismiss Shumba’s story without any justification.
“In the instant case, the court was being asked to secure the conviction of the accused on the strength of a single evidence of Khesiwe Mundando, the deceased’s mother.
“The court’s discomfort was heightened when Khesiwe said she saw the accused assaulting the deceased in the glare of other patients who were queuing to be assisted by the accused person,” said the judge.
Justice Bere queried why the other patients purported to have witnessed the assault were not called or had their statements recorded by the investigating officer.
“To me that approach amounts to carrying out shoddy investigations in a criminal matter whose evidential threshold is proof beyond reasonable doubt,” he said.
Shumba, in his defence through his lawyer, Mr Prayer Muzvuzvu of Muzvuzvu Law Chambers, argued that the deceased lost her memory and turned violent as she was being treated.
He said she hit her head against a locker resulting in her falling headlong and subsequently hit a clay pot and sustained head injuries.
Prosecuting, Mr Trust Muduma said on March 31 in 2008, Mundando, a mental patient, was accompanied by her mother to Shumba’s homestead to seek remedy for her condition.
He said during treatment, Shumba allegedly started assaulting the deceased all over her body claiming that he was exorcising her of demons.
“The accused assaulted the deceased all over the body with fists and a trowel. He banged her against the walls of his consultation room,” said Mr Muduma.
Mundando sustained severe head injuries and was rushed to the United Bulawayo Hospitals (UBH) where she died a week later.
— @mashnets
Bongani Ndlovu