×
NewsDay

AMH is an independent media house free from political ties or outside influence. We have four newspapers: The Zimbabwe Independent, a business weekly published every Friday, The Standard, a weekly published every Sunday, and Southern and NewsDay, our daily newspapers. Each has an online edition.

Murder suspect requests jail term for killing stepmother

News
A MENTALLY-challenged Gokwe man who killed his stepmother five years ago stunned High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese on Monday when he kept demanding to be jailed in a formal prison than be sent to Mlondolozi Mental Health Prison which he claimed would render him “idle”.

A MENTALLY-challenged Gokwe man who killed his stepmother five years ago stunned High Court judge Justice Martin Makonese on Monday when he kept demanding to be jailed in a formal prison than be sent to Mlondolozi Mental Health Prison which he claimed would render him “idle”.

by Stephen Chadenga

Munyaradzi Kohwai had been acquitted on murder charges on grounds of insanity, but pleaded with the court to sentence him to at least two years in a formal prison, saying life at the mental health institution rendered him idle.

“It is better than I be sentenced for two years or more instead of sending me to Mlondlozi where I will be idle,” he said.

Justice Makonese had a hard time explaining to him that he had to go to Mlondolozi for further treatment.

Prosecuting, Tafadzwa Mpariwa told the court that on July 9, 2012, Kohwai, of Chiyeka, Gokwe South, started behaving strangely and fatally struck Chipo Dube with an axe.

He then left home, leaving his stepmother lying dead in a pool of blood.