BY JAIROS SAUNYAMA
BRIGHT Zhantali (30) was composed despite the gravity of his charges during his initial court appearance.
On this day, he was facing more than 10 charges of rape and murder.
He chose to use the English language; speaking fluently he gave the impression, at least to those dealing with the matter that they were dealing with an intelligent person.
After a reign of terror that finally ended recently, Zhantali has been linked to close to 20 murder and rape cases.
Some of the victims were sex workers whom he allegedly raped and robbed before killing them.
Standardpeople had the opportunity to hear Zhantali chronicling how he committed the grisly murders.
Zhantali said on the day he got arrested, he had felt it.
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“On that day, my body was cold, and I said to myself, it has come to an end,” he said.
Zhantali said he was being tormented by the spirit of a woman who he raped near Lake Chivero some years ago.
“The woman appeared to me after the murder and told me that I was going to kill others the same way I killed her,” he said.
Zhantali has used the same modus operandi on all his victims.
He also confessed that one of his victims, Nelia Maringe, gave him a torrid time.
Maringe was an AFM pastor in Marondera who was raped and axed to death while reading her Bible in a bush.
“She had strength and wrestled me. I had to use an axe to kill her,” he recalled.
After killing Maringe at Grasslands Research Station, Zhantali wrote a letter and placed it inside the Bible before leaving.
Asked whether he needs a lawyer, Zhantali said: “I don’t need a defence counsel, I will defend myself.”
Zhantali has led police for indications in Mutare and Rusape where he committed some of the heinous crimes.
Apart from Marondera and Wedza, Zhantali also led police to Macheke, Masvingo where the body of a woman was discovered in a maize field in a decomposing state.
Zhantali will be back in court on April 6.
