Kombi driver, friends in court for fatally assaulting ‘rioter’
A Commuter Omnibus driver and five assailants have been arrested for allegedly fatally assaulting a man from Njube suburb on Monday night last week.
The court heard the group of six set out on a mission to avenge for their Sikwabayila`s kombi that had its windscreen shattered by protesters earlier in that day.
Mthulisi Sikwabayila (24) of Mpopoma suburb, Brandon Gumede (20), Nhlanhla Ngozo (18), Khulekani Mpofu (24), Hazel Ncube (26) and a seventeen year old all from Entumbane suburb are facing a murder charge.
Bulawayo Provincial magistrate Tinanshe Tashaya remanded the six in custody to February 11.
State representative, Nkathazo Dlodlo, told the court that at around 9pm Sikwabayila drove the group to Mpopoma with the intention to hunt down the people who had pelted his vehicle with stones.
“The accused persons were headed to where Sikwabayila’s kombi had been struck with a stone which shattered a windscreen earlier that day. At Njube turn off along Luveve road, the accused persons found the road barricaded with stones and burning logs. They disembarked from the kombi and confronted the now deceased Wellington Ncube and his colleagues who were close by,” said Dlodlo.
He continued: “An argument ensued. Ncube and his colleagues fled in different directions. The group pursued Ncube and caught up with him. They indiscriminately assaulted him with a sharp object on his head, punched and kicked him all over his body and left him for dead.”
Dlodlo said Ncube was ferried to Mpilo Hospital where he succumbed to injuries sustained during the attack.
