Brothers kill their nephew for dating their niece

THE long arm of the law finally caught up with two Chiredzi brothers who had been on the run since 2001 after they murdered their nephew for dating their niece.

High Court judge Justice Susan Mavangira found the pair guilty of murder with constructive intent and sentenced them to a total of 23 years in prison.

Sitting with assessors Joseph Mushuku and Samuel Mutomba at Masvingo High Court Circuit on Friday, Justice Mavangira slapped Salani Tshenele (52) with a 14-year jail term while condemning his brother Philimon Lisenga (46) to nine years in prison.

She said the pair had planned to end their nephew's life on a matter that was trivial and deserved deterrent sentences which would send a stern warning to would be offenders.

The pair was irked by the fact that their brother's daughter was dating Enock Sibanda who was 20 at the time.

The Chronicle reports that the two disappeared after being granted bail in 2001 but were rearrested sometime last year.

In mitigation, Lisenga, who was represented pro deo by Florence Baloyi, said he never at any point met Sibanda on the day in question.

Prosecutor Tinayeshe Matenga told the court that on December 25, 2000, the two accused were drinking beer with other patrons at Ndali Business Centre when their nephew Enock Sibanda arrived.

Upon the latter's arrival, Kazamula Tshenele, the first accused's brother, started accusing Sibanda of having an affair with his daughter and a fist fight ensued but other patrons intervened and stopped the fight.

Two relatives, Thomas Mahenye and Masenyani Gadzanai took Sibanda to his home and locked him in his bedroom hut after which they secured the door with a wire from outside.

After a while Sibanda came out and was seen by his uncle Salani who picked up a stone and struck him and he fell down.

Upon seeing this, the other uncle, Lisenga, who was waiting on guard, joined in and started assaulting Sibanda with fists and booted feet.

The two continued with the assault until Gadzanai intervened and Sibanda managed to escape but sometime during the night, he was found lying unconscious by a neighbour who put him in a wheelbarrow and took him home.

His relatives rushed him to Ndali Clinic where he was transferred to United Bulawayo Hospitals.

He died two days later.

Postmortem results showed that Sibanda's skull was fractured and he had a deep cut on the forehead sustained from the assault.