Justice Cheda sentences a man to Death in Zimbabwe

Source:The Chronicle
A FORMER police officer has been sentenced to death by hanging for the “cold-blooded and beastly murder” of a South African tourist in 2007.

Leo Matibe, 26, was accused -- along with another ex-cop who is on the run -- of the murder of 69-year-old Martinus Jacobus Oosthuyse whose body was dumped in farmland in Nyamandlovu, about 60km north-west of Bulawayo.

On Monday, Matibe was placed on death row after Justice Maphios Cheda, sitting at the Bulawayo High Court, found him guilty of murder with constructive intent.

The judge told Matibe: “In your own evidence, you stated that you knew and appreciated what you were doing. You are a trained police officer.

“This was a cold- blooded beastly murder committed without any conscience and you went on to dump the body. As a policeman, you had ample time to report the murder but you went to Harare for three weeks after the offence and still did not report.”

The court heard that Matibe, of Bulawayo’s Pumula North suburb, had been in the company of two friends – serving police officer Collin Tsikidze and Leonard Dube – when they decided to commit a robbery for money.

Shortly after midnight on September 26, 2007, the men approached Oosthuyse’s car – a Nissan Sentra bearing South African number plates -- which was parked outside a supermarket along Bulawayo’s 8th Avenue. Oosthuyse was sleeping.

Prosecutor Erick Moyo told the court Tsikidze tapped on the car’s window, showing Oosthuyse his police badge.

Tsikidze advised Oosthuyse that he was under arrest for wrongful parking and ordered him to drive to the nearby Bulawayo Central Police Station to pay a fine.

Oosthuyse let the men into his car but instead of directing him to the police station, they told to drive to the corner of Jason Moyo Street and 2nd Avenue. The frightened tourist was then ordered to stop in the middle of the road, and Tsikidze pulled out a pistol.
Dube, who was the prosecution’s star witness, immediately fled the scene.

After Oosthuyse refused to heed Tsikidze’s order to get out of the car, he was shot in the head and his body pushed to the front passenger seat, the prosecutor told the court.

Tsikidze, now one of Zimbabwe’s most wanted men, got behind the wheel and drove to Nyamandlovu where together with Matibe they dumped the body at the Bedminton Farm.

The two men drove off in Oosthuyse's car which had at the back a small refridgerator. They also robbed his dead body of a mobile phone and R700.

Oosthuyse’s body was found by locals two days later on September 28. His passport and a wristwatch were also recovered.

A post mortem report into his death was inconclusive as only parts of his body -- comprising of a fragmented skull, 13 spinal bones, left tibia, right tibia and both femurs -- were recovered.

Detectives investigating the murder got a lucky break just five days after the body was recovered when Matibe was arrested while committing a robbery at Mership House along Main Street. Police recovered a BSAP 170 CZ pistol which they linked to Oosthuyse’s murder.

In his defence, Matibe claimed that he took possession of the pistol from Tsikidze after the latter left it in a jacket which he gave to his girlfriend.

The judge rejected Matibe’s plea to find mitigating circumstances after claiming that he was drunk during the commission of the murder. During trial, Dube admitted all three man “had no money” to buy alcohol, and the judge said it followed they could not have been drunk.

“It is clear that you were actively participating in the commission of the crime,” the judge said.