Drinking buddies arrested after friend’s mystery death

By Whinsley Masara

Two men who were last seen with a man who was found dead in Luveve suburb on Monday morning, have been arrested.

The deceased, Public Ncube (61), was last seen drinking with the suspects Japhet Mathe who was also his neighbour and friend in Luveve suburb and Zimbili Tshili from Gwabalanda suburb.

Ncube’s body was found with no visible marks or traces of blood at Mathe’s house.

Although circumstances leading to his alleged murder remains a mystery, Mathe and Tshili who were both his friends, have since been arrested.

Bulawayo police spokesperson, Inspector Precious Simango confirmed the arrest. She said investigations were underway.

“I can confirm the arrest of two suspects who were last seen with the now deceased. We are investigating the suspected murder case. We are also awaiting postmortem results which we hope will determine the cause of death,” said Insp Simango.

On Monday, a family spokesperson, Mr Mike Ncube, who is also the deceased’s son told The Chronicle that his family was in a state of shock following his father’s sudden death.

He said on Monday morning, Mathe informed them that he had found Mr Ncube dead in his yard and was in the dark as to what might have caused his death.

Mr Ncube said tenants at Mathe’s house, however, told him that the three friends were involved in a fight on the previous night.

He said the three friends always fought when drunk. Mr Ncube said neighbours had told him that the trio fought but nobody bothered to restrain them as this was the norm each time they drank together.

They said Mathe and Mr Ncube had been friends for a long time and frequented local beer spots together.

Sometimes they fought while drunk but no one thought that it could end in death, a neighbour who spoke on condition of anonymity said.

Tenants who live at Mathe’s house, who refused to be identified said the three friends came home at around 9PM on Sunday after having earlier attended a funeral.

“They arrived at around 9PM and started drinking with Mathe. A fight broke out at around 11PM, but it was difficult to establish what was going on as the volume of their radio was too loud, as always.

“The volume was turned down at around 3AM and we were shocked to find Mr Ncube dead in the morning,” said a tenant.

Neighbours said that, on Monday morning, Mathe first went to call Tshili and when they came back together, that is when he informed them that his neighbour had died at his house. The Chronicle