18 years for fatally 'silencing' loud mouthed passenger

A commuter omnibus driver was so incensed by a loud mouthed and drunk passenger that he fatally smacked him with a 4kg concrete block.

Martin Davirai, who was 32 when he died last year, was one of the passengers who boarded a kombi driven by Naison Sibanda (31) to Pumula South at about 10pm in December.

On the way Davirai provoked other passengers resulting in him picking a fight with Sibanda, who later clobbered him with the concrete block when they reached their destination.

The two exchanged blows resulting in Sibanda picking the block to silence Davirai, who fell into a drain and sustained injuries on the head.

Sibanda was yesterday found guilty of murder with constructive intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Lawrence Kamocha who then sentenced him to 18 years in jail.

Nothing was suspended. Justice Kamocha, with Messrs Stanley Hadebe and Jongilizwe Sobantu agreeing as assessors, found extenuating circumstances in that Davirai was the aggressor and that his actions on the day in question amounted to provocation.

However, Justice Kamocha in his judgment said Sibanda's claims that Davirai tried to draw a bottle from a plastic bag intending to strike him with it and that by the time he hit him with the block he was standing was an afterthought, as evidenced by the fact that his statement to the police and evidence in chief were not in corroboration.

He said Sibanda acted cruelly when he went on to strike Davirai on the head, who had already fallen into a ditch and was lying helplessly.

Justice Kamocha said the sentence would meet justice.

The State counsel, Miss Nokuthaba Ngwenya from the Attorney General's Office had submitted that as a public transport driver, Sibanda should have taken Davirai's behaviour as an occupational hazard and exercised restraint.

She said it was the court's duty to uphold the sanctity of life by passing deterrent sentences on murderers.

Sibanda's pro deo lawyer, Mr Mazhar Petkar of James, Moyo-Majwabu and Nyoni Legal Practitioners submitted that he had no intention to kill and had acted in self defence as Davirai was the aggressor.

In his defence, Sibanda said Davirai disembarked from the kombi near Ashy's Shops in the suburb and went to the driver's side where he forcibly opened the door and slapped him.

Sibanda responded with a blow that propelled Davirai into a ditch before picking the block. Sibanda then went to a nearby bar where he told his landlord Mr Prince Mudzingwa that he had killed somebody. Davirai succumbed to the injuries at Mpilo Central Hospital the following day.