High Court Judge Justice Nicholas Matonsi has sentenced Farai Machaya (30) to an effective 18 years imprisonment for murdering MDC supporter Moses Chokuda in 2009. His three accomplices, Abel Maphosa( 45) brothers Edmore (27) and Bothwell Gana (25), were slapped with the same sentence.
Two others, Obert Gavi (23) and Tirivashoma Mawadze (25), were sentenced to a wholly suspended 12 month jail term. The judge ruled that the two had only assaulted the deceased once each with open hands, which did not result in the mortal wound.
Farai is the son of Zanu (PF) Midlands Governor and Chairperson Jaison Machaya.
The court heart that Machaya’s shop at Gokwe Centre was broken into by buglers. Machaya and his accomplices assaulted Isheunesu Sibanda, the duty guard, who implicated Chokuda.
They picked from his homestead and took him to the shop where they assaulted him with booted feet and open hands.
In order to save himself from the beatings, the deceased lied that he had stolen the goods and hidden them. When Machaya failed to recover the goods, they continued to assault Chokuda with logs and iron bars and left him for dead after he had become unconscious. He died the following day on the way to hospital.
Patron Venge, the Gokwe District Medical Officer who examined the body, told the court the deceased had suffered a broken jaw and spine.
Tawengwa Chokuda, the deceased’s father, told The Zimbabwean after the court ruling that he would not bury the body of his son, which has been lying at Gokwe mortuary for two years, until Governor Machaya had apologised to him and made compensations.
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