Gun toting former police detective, Jason Muvevi has been declared mentally fit to stand trial for a string of murder charges, clearing the way for his case to be sent to the High Court between 16 and 20 March 2026.
Harare Magistrate, Ruth Moyo confirmed the update on Tuesday after receiving a fresh report from two State psychiatrists who recently re-examined Muvevi.
“The doctors have concluded that the accused is capable of standing trial.”
Muvevi was sent to the Chikurubi Psychiatric Unit back in 2023 after he showed signs of mental instability, but doctors now say he’s mentally fit to face trial.
According to prosecutors, Muvevi is accused of carrying out a violent series of shootings across Harare, Hwedza and Mutare.
Four people, Nyarai Round, Chrispen Kanerusine, Inspector Maxwell Hove and Munashe Majani lost their lives, and four others, including a police detective and a Mutare Boys High School employee, were allegedly targeted but survived.
On 13 January, for reasons yet unclear, Muvevi drove to a Johanne Masowe eChishanu Apostolic Church shrine where his mother, Shupikai Muvevi, was in attendance together with other congregants.
At the shrine, he shot the prophet and leader of the shrine, Chrispen Kanerusine, at close range, killing him instantly.
Witnesses at the church claim that his mother, shocked at the murder, retorted, “What have you done, my son?” Muvevi then told the church gathering to leave the shrine.
He then sped off and proceeded to Hwedza Business Centre. In the meantime, the shooting at the shrine was reported at ZRP Hwedza.
The officer-in-charge of Hwedza Police Station, Inspector Maxwell Hove (43), mobilised a team of police officers and left ZRP Hwedza for Negombwe Village.
The team of police officers spotted Muvevi parked at the 25km peg along Hwedza-Murambinda Road. He was talking to an unidentified man.
The cops blocked Muvevi’s vehicle, and as they were getting out of their car, he opened fire and shot Insp Hove thrice in the head while he was seated in the passenger seat.
Muvevi also allegedly shot Detective Constable Tendai Mugova three times in the pelvis and abdomen, leaving him seriously injured.
The other police officers dropped an FN rifle with a magazine and 10 rounds, and a CZ pistol and ran for dear life.
After the incident, Muvevi drove to Mukamba Business Centre, where he went to Ruzema Bottle Store.
According to the charge sheet, Muvevi saw Munashe Majani, a barman, outside the bar in the company of Given Pambeni and Tinashe Musangano.
He allegedly called Majani over and had a brief chat with him before shooting him. The motive for the murder was not immediately ascertained.
The next day, the Police announced that Muvevi had been intercepted in Rusape in the Chiduku area and that he had managed to escape arrest after a shootout with the police.
Muvevi was reported to have abandoned his Toyota Allion vehicle and escaped on foot.
The police recovered a firearm, an FN rifle, that he had seized the previous day after shooting Hove dead.
In Mutare, Muvevi bought a new blue work-suit from Wasu Shopping Mall for ZWL$14,250 using EcoCash.
It was the work suit he was wearing when he was arrested in Mozambique the following day.
After buying the work suit, he boarded a Marymount-bound pirate taxi, resulting in him ending up at Mutare Boys’ High School en route to Mozambique.
He visited the school’s compound barefoot and lied that he was on a mission to kill the marauding baboons in the area.
Muvevi confronted Zvikomborero Mangorwa soon after she emerged from the shower and violently knocked on her family’s door and demanded that all the occupants move out.
He then asked for food and also produced a US$10 bill and asked Mangorwa to buy him a road-runner chicken to prepare a meal for him.
She said she refused after realising that he was armed.
Muvevi didn’t know where he was, and when told he was at Mutare Boys’ High School, he asked for directions to Mozambique.
But before he left, he also confronted Mangorwa’s sister when she came back home.
He told her he was on a mission to kill baboons as he had heard that they were a menace in the area, saying the shots he had fired were meant to scare away the baboons.
Muvevi said he wanted food and told the woman that he was prepared to cook his own food, but she refused. He then left when he realised that some people were coming to the house.
A Mutare Boys High School employee, Raphel Nyahwema, said he narrowly escaped death after Muvevi fired three shots towards him from less than 10 metres after he had tried to pick up a hoe handle on realising that he was armed.
Nyahwema said Muvevi had asked him to cook food for him, but he refused.
One of the bullets that missed Nyahwema perforated a geyser tank pitched at the staff quarters.
Muvevi hid in a toilet at Asei Game Park and the thickets around Mutare Boys’ High School as he evaded the detectives who were pursuing him on Sunday.
After his arrest, Muvevi told the police that he crossed into Mozambique at night before hiring a motorcyclist to ferry him to Chimoio.
The cyclist, who was filmed narrating his encounter with Muvevi, said he was offered US$200 to ferry him to Chimoio.
Muvevi is alleged to have shot and killed Nyarai Round (33) of Domboshava “for no apparent reason” in Harare’s Eastlea suburb on 19 November 2021.
Round was in the company of Nyasha Eusen, while Muvevi was in the company of two unidentified men.
Eusen was arrested on 30 November 2021 and released on 24 January after the state withdrew charges against him and made him a key witness in the case instead.
