6 men, 3 women up for Bosso fan murder

SIX men and three women appeared in court yesterday facing murder charges for the alleged killing of a Highlanders fan who is said to have smashed a rear window of a vehicle they were travelling in.

The late Thembelenkosini Hloli, 23 (pictured), and two of his friends, Nkosiphile Lusinga and Decent Sibanda were allegedly being pursued by the nine suspects after they smashed the window of a Toyota Spacio the Dynamos supporters were travelling in following a match that the Harare side won 1-0.

The suspects are Emmason Msipa, 44, Honest Makhala, 28, Onisimo Maphosa, 33, Chapindura, 43, Rogder, 42, Pretty Ndora, 27, Nandi Nyoni, 31 and Margaret Mpofu, 23, as well as Chamas Misiwo, a police officer stationed at Hwange Traffic Section who was driving the vehicle and is Mpofu's boyfriend.

Through their lawyers, all suspects pleaded not guilty, saying they were being victimised for the post-match violence. The nine were however, remanded in custody to today by magistrate Sibongile Msipa for continuation of their bail hearing.

Tafadzwa Mutsambiwa appeared for the state. The Prosecutor General's office consented to the magistrates' court's hearing of the bail application.

Defence lawyers however, dismissed the case as an "affront of justice", and criticised what they termed as retrogressive and punitive arrest methods employed by the police in detaining all the passengers who were in the vehicle whose window was smashed.

"We have an issue with the dragnet way of arresting my clients. The arrest was treated in a way that even passengers were arrested. This is a punitive and retrogressive method of arrest.

"They are victims turned into accused because of the ineptitude of the Premier Soccer League to stamp out violence," said Lawrence Chikwakwa of Sansole and Senda legal practitioners, one of the defence lawyers.

Another defence lawyer Tanaka Muganyi accused police of incompetence due to their clients' prolonged detention. "The state hasn't offered any substantial evidence for anticipatory punishment. My clients were arrested on August 9. Today is the 14th (of August) and they've been brought on a 242 which itself has nothing to show that my clients have committed this crime. Such conduct is despicable.

What police have done is to use a scatter gun approach, where one just shoots and hopes to hit the target," said Muganyi.

He also said that the postmortem said that Hloli was killed by a sharp object, which could have been "a spike, a screwdriver, but not a knife."

He added that the postmortem does not link the suspects to the murder.

In an affidavit submitted by Detective Sergeant Mehluli Sibanda, an investigating officer in the case, preliminary investigations reveal that Hloli was seen by a security guard, who is still yet to be located, being assaulted by the suspects.

"Msipa, Makhala, Maphosa, Chapindura and Trechsen were seen chasing after the accused person in a blue Toyota Spacio.

"The witness was in the said vehicle," said Sibanda.