Tinashe Hastone Mphaka will languish in jail for the next 25 years following his recent conviction at the High court in Harare. The former gold panner was convicted of murdering one Tinashe Raisi at a bar in Kadoma after the deceased intervened to rstop him from assaulting a woman at the bar. He mercilessly attacked him with a matchete and left him to die.
It was the state’s case that Hastone and his friend Garikai Chihuri had approached a certain woman in a bar asking for “short time” but the latter had refused. It was then that they started assaulting her. They later dragged her outside and together with other male patrons hit her with mops, sticks and open hands. Tinashe Raisi intervened to stop the assault and it was at this point that Hastone dragged him to a dark corner and slashed him with a matchete. After the assault, he wiped blood off his hands and bragged that he had given the deceased way he deserved.
Although Hastine was convicted of murdering and sentenced to 25 years in prison, his co accused was only found guilty of public violence and slapped with a four year jail term. The state conceded that it had no eveidence against Garikai of murder.
Cases of murder through the use of matchetes with violence involved have become rampant in Zimbabwe. Areas such as Kadome, where artisinal miners are largely located, have become death traps with hundreds of people losing their lives each year through matchetes.
