Man (21) jailed for eight years for culpable homicide

A villager from Silima area of Mangwe District who fatally struck a fellow villager with a piece of concrete brick following a misunderstanding over a missing cap, has been jailed for eight years.

Phuthumani Olvars Nkomo (21) pleaded not guilty to the murder of Polite Ngwenya (40) but tendered a limited plea of guilty to culpable homicide.

Senior Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Ndou sitting with Mrs Agnes Dhlula and Mr Phanuel Damba as assessors, convicted him of culpable homicide.

Four years of his sentence were suspended for four years on condition that he is not within that period convicted of a similar offence.

In arriving at the sentence, the court said it had taken into account that Nkomo is a youthful first offender and but the court however noted that human life was lost over a very trivial issue.

Justice Ndou said it is unfortunate that leisure centres where people go to in order to while up time have now turned out to be places where some people meet their death.

He said offences of this nature were unfortunately committed by young people adding that Nkomo started his criminal life on the deeper end of the pool.

Agreed facts are that on 28 August last year, Nkomo and Ngwenya were among villagers who were at Sindisa Business Centre drinking.

The pair had a misunderstanding over a missing cap while at Mahalisi Bottle Store.

Ngwenya left the bottle store for another one and Nkomo followed him, picked up a piece of concrete brick and struck Ngwenya on the right side of the head and he fell down and lost consciousness. Nkomo then ran out of the bottle store.

Other patrons apprehended him and took him to the police.

Ngwenya was ferried to Plumtree District Hospital by the bottle store owner and was later referred to Mpilo Central Hospital but he died on the way.

According to the post-mortem report, the cause of Ngwenya's death was brain haemorrhage as a result of a skull fracture caused by an assault with a heavy blunt object.

Mr Simbarashe Timothy Makoni, of the Attorney General's Office prosecuted and Mr Robinson Mahachi, of T Hara and Partners defended Nkomo pro deo.

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