Judge Mawadze’s son murders dealer

THE son of a High Court judge and his two friends allegedly robbed a Harare cellphone dealer of his four handsets and fatally stabbed him before dumping the corpse in a bush in Ruwa.

Munyaradzi Junior Mawadze (21), who is the son of Masvingo resident judge, Justice Garainesu Mawadze, was on Wednesday arrested together with Elvin Dongo Saungweme (22) and Dylon Balani (22) for murder.

The trio allegedly took the dealer from his trading area near Chicken Slice food court, along Angwa Street, after posing as cellphone buyers before driving to Waterfalls where they robbed him of his four cellphones.

They reportedly stabbed him several times with knife and drove to Ruwa where they dumped his body.

The incident occurred on March 12.

Members of the dealer’s family had reported him missing but the matter came to light when detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) Homicide took over the investigations last week.

A team of detectives was then set up to investigate the matter.

The team on Tuesday received information that the dealer was last seen in the company of Mawadze, a first-year law student at the University of Zimbabwe (UZ).

Police launched a manhunt for Mawadze, who was found and arrested in Masvingo.

Police brought him to Harare for further investigations where he reportedly admitted to murdering the dealer.

Sources said Mawadze implicated his two friends before leading the detectives to Ruwa where they had dumped the corpse.

Yesterday police recovered the body that was in a decomposing state and took it to Parirenyatwa Hospital for post-mortem.

The three were yesterday still in custody and are expected to appear in court today.

Last month a break-in was reported at the judge’s Waterfalls residence where the same judge’s son claimed he was attacked by robbers who stripped the judge’s official car of its wheels and other components.

The judge also lost US$1 500 and electrical gadgets in the said robbery.

The judge’s Mercedes-Benz E300 was stripped of its four wheels, lights and the grill.