Online Reporter
Bruce Ndlovu, Sunday Life Reporter
PROBABLY if Themba Ndimane had not met Mandlenkosi “Never” Masina by chance at a watering hole in Silobela in the Midlands Province, he might not have lost his life.
Instead, fate deemed it that he would meet Masina at the Crossroads Shopping Centre one afternoon and that chance encounter would lead to his eventual death. Eventually, it would also make Masina the last man to be ever executed in Zimbabwe’s history.
When he arrived at the shopping centre on that fateful day, Ndimane would not have guessed that he was about to spend his last day on earth.
As he looked around, he searched for a familiar face with whom he could share a drink with.
As his eyes scanned the watering hole, his sight settled on Masina. Here was a familiar face in a strange setting. This, he thought, was a man he could share his drink with.
It was a decision that would lead to the premature end of his life.
The two men had once served together at Kwekwe Prison and Ndimane might have thought they could share tales about life during and after their stints behind bars.
“I admit to the charge put against me,” Masina would later confess to the police. “On the day in question, I left Zibomvu area, where I had visited my mother, Maria Ndlovu, and proceeded to Crossroads in Silobela. On arrival, I bought opaque beer (two scuds). While I was drinking Themba Ndimane, whom I had met at Kwekwe Prison in 1998, arrived. We drank together and a lot of people whom I did not know arrived. They bought beer and we ended up drinking together. The now deceased was one of these people.”
As the two old jailbirds traded stories, the alcohol flowed. Soon, they had lost track of time and the darkness settled on the beer hall. Ndimane was now in a bind. He was not from the area, and had no place to sleep.
Venturing out into the night was a non-starter. He had money in his pocket and some goods that he was carrying. He had a proposal for Masina. He could spend the night at his place and leave at first light the next morning.
Masina promptly agreed. The last time that witnesses saw the pair together was when they set off towards the road to Kwekwe, walking side to side like the biblical Cain and Abel.
“The evidence of the State witness, Khumalo, was to the effect that he saw the deceased and the appellant (Masina) leave Crossroads Shopping Centre together at about 10 o’clock in the evening. He observed them walk towards the road to Kwekwe until he lost sight of them,” court records showed.
It was a journey that would end in tragedy for Ndimane.
“We drank beer until the beer hall was closed and all other people with whom we were drinking with went away. I remained behind with the deceased. The deceased requested me to take him to the place where I was staying because it was late and he had no place to put up. I agreed and we left together,” Masina said.
It is unclear when Masina decided that he was going to rob his new friend. Perhaps he had made up his mind earlier, when he realised that he could take advantage of his vulnerability as a stranger, alone in an unfamiliar place.
When his bloodied body was eventually discovered, Ndimane had two stab wounds on the anterior aspect of neck, one wound on the left lower sternal edge — associated left-sided haemopneumothoraxis, one wound on the left lumber region — no associated bowel perforation, one wound on the forehead and one wound at the back lumber region.
“As a result of the foregoing examination, I am of the opinion that the cause of death was (1) Left-sided haemopneumothoraxis secondary to stab wounds of the chest (2) haemorrhage and shock,” the coroner’s report read.
For Masina, the murder was committed simply with commerce in mind.
“We were near a borehole. I decided to rob him. Therefore, I drew my Okapi knife and stabbed him four times on the left side of his body. When he had fallen down, I searched him and took cash $300-00, removed his pair of shoes, and further took his travelling bag, which contained groceries and a plough share and I took the property to my mother’s homestead in Zibomvu area. I left all this property at my mother’s homestead with the exception of the cash, which I spent,” he said.
Masina would later be convicted of murder in what turned out to be a slam-dunk case for law enforcement authorities.
He would later appeal, claiming that he had been coerced into making his confession by the police.
“There was a feeble attempt by the appellant to challenge both the admissibility and genuineness of the confession. The court dismissed the challenge for a number of reasons. The appellant was unable to prove how he was coerced. The statement contained a wealth of detail that could only have come from a person involved in the killing of the deceased,” then Chief Justice Chidyausiku sitting together with Justices Malaba and Gwaunza said when Masina’s case was heard in Bulawayo on 6 October 2002.
Masina would then become the last of the 105 people executed in independent Zimbabwe. Like the others, his life was extinguished using the dreaded “short drop” hanging method.
Using this method, a condemned prisoner would stand on suspended doors with the noose around the neck and a sandbag tied to their feet. The suspended doors would then be flung open, leaving the person dangling from the rope.
Suspended by the neck, the weight of the body and the sandbag tightened the noose around the neck, effecting strangulation and leading to death.
Later, medical doctors would confirm the death of the prisoner before the dead body was taken away to be burned to ashes.
In January President Mnangagwa signed the Death Penalty Abolition Bill into law, bringing relief to 48 inmates awaiting a similar fate to Masina.
The new legislation, known as the Death Penalty Abolition Act (Chapter 9:26) (No. 4 of 2024), aligns with Section 131(6)(a) of the Constitution of Zimbabwe. It prohibits courts from imposing death sentences under any circumstances, mandating alternative sentencing based on the specifics of each case.
Following the gazetting of the Act, a person convicted of murder in aggravating circumstances shall be liable to a jail term of between 20 years and life imprisonment.
