Duo in hot soup for killing gold theft suspect

Two Colleen Bawn men who are believed to be part of a five-member notorious syndicate accused of ganging up to fatally assault a man they accused of stealing gold ore, have been arraigned before Gwanda magistrate Lerato Nyathi charged with murder.

Mpho Moyo (36) and Qhubekani Ndlovu (40) both from Colleen Bawn, Matabeleland South, were remanded in custody to August 21 for allegedly killing Morgan Sibanda.

According to state prosecutor Noel Mandebvu, the notorious five-member gang attacked Sibanda on 23 July this year.

Circumstances surrounding Sibanda’s ghastly murder are that on the said date, the gang attacked the now deceased before drowning him in a saline pond and, thereafter, inhumanely tied his hands and legs using a wire.

The pair, whose other three accomplices are still at large, were asked not to plead guilty during their court appearance.

“On 23 July at around 9pm, at Sally 22 Mine in Colleen Bawn, Moyo and Ndlovu together with three other people who are still at large confronted Morgan Sibanda. They assaulted him with a hammer mill, fan belts, horse pipe and also punched and kicked him several times,” Mandebvu told the court.

“They then tied his hands together to the back with a wire and also tied his feet together with a wire. They then drowned him in a saline pond. Upon realising that he had passed out the gang dumped Sibanda’s body in a make shift plastic tent at the mine and they fled the scene. Sibanda’s body was later found by some mine workers who reported the matter to the police resulting in the arrest of the accused persons,” he said.

But, further investigations reveal that Sibanda had been remanded out of custody for a case of theft of gold ore and was seen by the gang while carrying a sack full of gold ore and they confronted him accusing him of stealing the gold ore which resulted in the attack.

state media
Additional Reporting: Zwnews