ZIMBABWE: NKOMO FARM MURDERER SENTENCED TO DEATH

July 8, 2014: A High Court judge described as cold, calculated and callous, the senseless killing of two workers at the late Vice President Landa John Nkomo's ranch as he sentenced the murderer to death.
Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Andrew Mutema, sitting on circuit in Hwange, convicted Pardon Mpofu of Jumbika Village in Lupane of murdering Nhlanhla Dube, 21, and Pilate Moyo, 28, and dumping their bodies in a disused septic tank before looting their property in October last year.
Mpofu, 22, claimed he momentarily lost his mind when he committed the crimes and spoke of a "loud silence" that followed the fatal striking of his victim with a hoe handle on the head at VP Nkomo's Winterblock ranch in Insuza.
He also claimed to have seen Dube lacing his food with a dipping chemical.
Mpofu recounted how he executed Moyo, unprovoked, with a knobkerrie, moments after they had taken baths separately.
In passing sentence, Justice Mutema, with Elias Ndlovu and Elizabeth Chazanga as assessors, said the murders were executed in cold blood, well calculated and callous.
"You knew the two had gone to receive their salaries. Your denial that you never killed them for their property and money isn't surprising because you know the consequences”. (Sources: bulawayo24.com, 10/07/2014)