By Meditation Mposi
A 36 year old herbalist from Masvingo was lucky to escape imprisonment after Masvingo Magistrate Bishard Chineka acquitted him of attempted murder charges on July 31.
Innocent Tiringindi was dragged to court charged with culpable homicide as defined in section 49(1) of the Criminal Law Codification and Reform Act (Chapter 09:23).
It was the State case that on November 13, 2023, Tiringindi from ZBS, Masvingo was called by the now deceased Catherine Dube who wanted to buy Babado seed herbs to treat her stomach problem.
Tiringindi then went to Dube’s place of residence and delivered two Babado seeds at US$5.
Dube consumed the herbs on the same day at around 0500hrs as was prescribed by the herbalist and that’s when she started vomiting as well as sweating.
Tichaona Kubiku who is Dube’s husband then realized that the now deceased’s health was further deteriorating and rushed her to Masvingo General Hospital to seek medical attention.
Upon arrival at the hospital, Dube was pronounced dead after being attended to by the nurse on duty. The matter was reported to the police and a postmortem was conducted to establish the cause of death.
The postmortem report revealed that she died due to chemical toxicity and the abdomen, kidneys, liver and bowels were all injured. The report further noted that the damages could have been caused by consumption of poison, the body failing to accept a certain drug or the person may have been suffering from acids for a long time.
In acquitting, Tiringindi, Magistrate Chineka said the fact that the postmortem did not mention that the damages in the deceased’s body were linked to the Babado seed, means there was no enough incriminating evidence.
The Babado seed is used to treat people in Western countries and that Tiringindi was a registered herbalist who had treated a number of people including the deceased’s relative. The relative did not die.
