By Loveness Bepete
BULAWAYO – A policeman was rushed to hospital early morning yesterday with rescuers holding his stomach to prevent his intestines from slipping out after he had been stabbed outside a police base in Nkulumane.
David Sakala allegedly went on a rampage — first stabbing his girlfriend on the cheek after finding her at The Joint at Nkulumane Complex at around 1AM — before ripping into Constable Shepherd Mukoto’s abdomen.
Sources at Mpilo Central Hospital yesterday said Const Mukoto was in the theatre with doctors battling to save his life.
Witnesses said Sakala was with three friends whose names could not be ascertained, when they arrived drunk at the pub.
They said the four found Sakala’s girlfriend only identified as Soneni, fighting with another woman.
“David was livid when he saw his girlfriend. He demanded to know what she was doing at the bar at night,” said a witness who declined to be named.
“Police put on hold a potentially ugly scene when they swooped on the group and arrested the two women for public fighting.”
Sakala and his friends, the witnesses said, lingered outside the police base at the complex where the two women were taken.
They said the moment they were released after paying admission of guilt fines, Sakala picked up the argument with his girlfriend.
“He produced a knife and stabbed her on the cheek. As blood spurted from Soneni’s wound, David’s friends scattered,” said the witness.
It was at that moment, police sources explained, that Sgt Mukoto arrived.
“He tried to restrain the accused and the man stabbed him in the belly, ripping across the abdomen to leave a gaping wound,” said a police source.
Soneni allegedly screamed that her boyfriend had stabbed a police officer, as Sakala fled from the scene.
Soneni was taken into custody where she spilled the beans about her boyfriend’s whereabouts.
Armed police officers with dogs arrested him in an early morning raid at his home in Pelandaba.
His friends were allegedly arrested using the same method.
The incident comes barely a month after a police officer survived death by a whisker after he was hit by a car whilst manning a roadblock along Siyephambili Drive.
Bulawayo police spokesperson Inspector Mandlenkosi Moyo could not be reached for comment. The Chronicle
