Ten years after the gruesome murder of Nyamandlovu farmer Elizabeth Gloria Olds (72), the trial of her suspected murderers — a war veteran and his friend who allegedly shot to death the old woman and her three dogs at the height of farm invasions in 2001 — is still on.
Yesterday the suspects, Albert Ncube (57), a war veteran, and his friend, Robert Nyathi (39), were supposed to have their trial resume at the Bulawayo High Court, but it was postponed to today to allow the State to locate a witness, Collen Dlamini, who is a police officer, to come and testify.
Two witnesses are still to testify in the matter — Dlamini and Stephen Mpofu, a detective in the Criminal Investigation Department’s Law and Order Section.
The pair is also facing charges of kidnapping Olds’ employee Foster Moyo a day before they allegedly committed the murder.
At the time of the alleged offences Ncube was 47 and Nyathi 29. The pair pleaded not guilty to the charges before Justice Maphios Cheda.
They are out of custody on bail. Charges against them are that on March 4 2001 at about 6:45am, the pair shot Olds at her farmhouse at Silverstream Farm in Nyamandlovu.
Olds’ employees heard gunshots coming from the direction of the farmhouse and one of them, Mpimpi Moyo, went to investigate and found her body lying in a pool of blood with gunshot wounds. Besides her body lay the carcasses of her three dogs which were also shot dead during her alleged murder.
