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Mashudu Netsianda, Senior Court Reporter
THE High Court yesterday acquitted three of five men who were allegedly linked to the death of a gold panner in Shangani.
Admire Makoni, 23, of Chitungwiza, McIntosh Nhawu, 17, of Gokwe, Tapiwa Maupa, 30, of Gokwe, Brighton Munyiri, 27, and Peter Manyuchi, 18, both of Buhera, allegedly crushed Mandlenkosi Sibanda, 27, of Shangani with a concrete block in a tribally- motivated battle over the control of gold pits.
However, Makoni, Munyiri and Manyuchi were discharged at the close of the state case by Bulawayo High Court judge, Justice Francis Bere.
The judge concluded that the state had failed to prove a prima facie case against the trio and acquitted them of the murder charge.
The three were accused of teaming up with Nhawu and Maupa to fatally assault Sibanda.
Justice Francis Bere ruled that there was no evidence linking the trio to the crime.
The three men had argued they were only part of the crowd that witnessed the incident.
Justice Bere remanded Nhawu and Maupa in custody to March 22 for continuation of trial. Nhawu requested to bring witnesses to testify on his behalf.
Tsungai Mapeta, 28, a vendor who witnessed the murder, said he spotted Nhawu and Maupa participating in the tribally motivated attack.
Prosecuting, Whisper Mabaudhi said on February 25, 2013 shortly after 10PM at Farai Munashe Bottle store, Tafadzwa Solo confronted Mlamuleli Tshuma and allegedly threatened him in Shona, saying, “nhasi maNdebele ese ndoda kumarova (today I want to assault all Ndebele speaking people).”
The long standing dispute emanated from a feud between Shona and Ndebele gold panners over the control of goldfields in Shangani.
The court heard that Tshuma stood up and headed towards the exit and blocked the door.
Solo threw an empty bottle of beer at Tshuma and hit him on the forehead.
The court heard that Makoni, Nhawu, Maupa, Munyiri and Manyuchi grouped together and hatched a plan to assault the Ndebeles in the area.
They chased Sibanda and caught up with him before assaulting him using stones and concrete blocks and fled from the scene leaving the body lying in a pool of blood.
According to a postmortem report, the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head, homicide and sub-arachnoid haemorrhage.
derick.khumalo