Lloyd Shunje in Mutare
12 March 2017, MUTARE – Justice Charles Hungwe last week sentenced four brothers from Buhera to 20 years imprisonment each for the brutal murder of their father Sam Chigaya using burning plastics.
The four had accused their father of practising witchcraft.
Sitting on the Mutare circuit of the High Court last week, Justice Hungwe found Blessing (24), John (42), Joel (29) and Mathias Chigaya (26) guilty of murder as defined in Section 47(1)a or (b) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act (Chapter 9:23).
It was the State’s case that on December 11, 2015, the brothers and their father consulted a faith healer after a sequence of mysterious deaths in the family.
The faith healer reportedly pointed to Sam as the source of all the misfortunes which had befallen the family.
Out of anger, the brothers grabbed their father and put him in his bedroom and told him to produce his juju, but the old man failed saying he did not have any stuff of that kind in his possession.
The brothers would, however, have none of that as they were convinced that their father had a lot to hide. They started a fire in a roofless house, burnt plastics containers of opaque beer and continuously dropped molten plastics all over their father’s body with his hands and legs tied.
Sam was then force-marched into a fire while shackled to a harrow.
The helpless victim was later found in his room by his three wives and he told them what had happened but the brothers threatened to punish anyone who dared take the victim to hospital.
A post-mortem carried out at Rusape General Hospital showed the victim died of severe burns.
Malvern Musarurwa appeared for the State.
