Man beats son to death in cellphone theft fight
By Sylvester Chiramba
A 58 year old man from Bulawayo allegedly beat his 35-year-old son to death after accusing him of stealing his cellphone. Frazer Sibanda from Mpopoma suburb allegedly assaulted his son Dennis with a plank all over the body on Wednesday last week.
The son died in hospital on Sunday.
Sibanda allegedly lied to police that his son had died of Aids.
He produced his medical cards and claimed his son had stopped taking his medication leading to his death.
Sibanda allegedly destroyed the murder weapon but a postmortem showed his son had died as a result of a violent attack.
The accused yesterday appeared before Western Commonage magistrate, Mr Stephen Ndhlovu, facing murder charges.He was not asked to plead and remanded in custody to April 19.
Mr Ndhlovu advised Sibanda to apply for bail at the High Court.
Prosecuting, Mr Petros Shoko said On March 28 at around 11PM Sibanda, his son and Francis Washington Sithole were in the sitting room.
“The accused left the two in the sitting room and got into another room where he brought with him plank which was about a metre long which he used to assault his son several times all over the body accusing him of stealing his cellphone,” said Mr Shoko.
He said after the assault, Sibanda allegedly destroyed the plank which he had used to assault his son. Dennis sought medical examination on the following day as he was frothing through the mouth and he died on Sunday.
The court also heard that Sibanda went to the police to report his son’s death and he brought with him his son’s medical cards which indicated that he was on antiretroviral therapy.
Sibanda, said Mr Shoko, told the police that his son had died of Aids but the postmortem results indicated that he had died from assault.
Investigations were carried out leading to Sibanda’s arrest.
A month ago, another Bulawayo man was arrested for allegedly fatally assaulting his maid whom he was having an affair with after discovering that she was HIV positive.
Godson Zondo (36) from Emganwini suburb allegedly assaulted his maid Khethiwe Zimba with a plank all over the body in February after he discovered that she was on ART.
The maid, who was having an extra-marital affair with Zondo, had not told him that she was HIV positive.
Zimba died in hospital a day after the assault from excessive bleeding.
Zondo’s wife was working outside Bulawayo and the alleged crime is said to have been committed while she was at work. The Chronicle
