A 28-year-old man from Mashonga Village in Magunje has been convicted of murdering his sister for ritual purposes and later losing his sight while awaiting trial.
The High Court sitting in Chinhoyi found Isaac Mashonga guilty of killing his sister, Dadirai Mashonga, in July 2017.
Justice Philda Muzofa, presiding with two assessors, described the crime as “a tragedy that will haunt this family and community forever.”
The horror began when the siblings’ 93-year-old father, Champion Mashonga, and his wife woke to find Dadirai’s headless body sprawled in blood inside their kitchen hut.
Delivering her judgment, Justice Muzofa expressed the court’s disbelief at the brutality of the act.
“No parent can imagine one of his or her children beheading his sibling in their kitchen,” she said.
On the night of the murder, Isaac, then 20, returned to the homestead accompanied by a local businessman known as “Giant,” whose real name was Robert Tichareva.
Prosecutors revealed that the two had conspired to kill Dadirai for ritual purposes, with Isaac allegedly promised US$4,000 in exchange for the beheading.
The plan was premeditated, and both men acted with intent when they arrived at the property.
That night, Dadirai was asleep in the kitchen hut.
Witnesses later testified that Isaac led Tichareva directly to her room.
Inside, she was strangled and then decapitated using a kitchen knife, an axe, and an adze.
The pair placed her head in a green satchel and smuggled it to a derelict building near the local business centre.
The following morning, Isaac returned home wearing blood-soaked clothes.
Villagers who gathered at the scene apprehended him, tied his hands, and forced him to reveal the location of the satchel.
Inside was Dadirai’s severed head.
The court also heard testimony from Champion Mashonga, the 93-year-old father of both the accused and the victim, who recounted the moment his son confessed to the crime.
He told the bench that Isaac admitted to the killing and revealed the weapons used.
“He confessed and showed us the weapons. As a father, I had no reason to misrepresent the facts. I was simply a troubled father,” Mashonga said.
Tichareva was arrested alongside Isaac but died before trial.
Isaac, meanwhile, lost his sight while in remand prison.
Medical reports confirmed he is now 80% blind—a development that deepened his parents’ anguish.
Justice Muzofa noted, “For this elderly couple, they have lost two children at the same time—one through death and one through incarceration.”
According to NewZimbabwe, Isaac now depends on fellow inmates for basic needs such as bathing, eating, and movement.
The court acknowledged that “being blind and in prison presents a double challenge,” but ruled that disability could not shield him from punishment.
In his defence, Isaac claimed he had been drugged by Tichareva and acted under his influence.
But the court dismissed his explanation as “far-fetched” and “chicanery.”
Delivering her ruling, Justice Muzofa stated, “The accused literally took the Court for granted.
He carried the satchel fully aware that it had his sister’s head.
“He then went to sleep. How can a person conduct himself likewise and yet claim he was intoxicated?”
The bench found that Isaac acted as a willing accomplice.
“The proved facts admit of no other inference except that the accused was part of this grand plan,” said Justice Muzofa.
She described the killing as “murder in aggravating circumstances” and said it had “induced a sense of shock and revulsion” in the community.
Although the court considered Isaac’s age at the time of the offence, his six years in pre-trial custody, and his disability, it ruled that retribution and deterrence must take precedence.
Isaac now faces decades behind bars—blind, broken, and burdened by the legacy of a crime that devastated his family.
