Body of missing Tsholotsho cop found, man held for murder




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BULAWAYO – Police say the body of a man found at Bochkloof Farm Hunters near Gweru has been identified as that of a missing Tsholotsho police officer, Constable Edmond Sibanda, who disappeared on October 11.

Sibanda’s badly decomposed body was found on October 17 but it was not matched to the missing police officer until November 3.

Police have arrested 31-year-old Pardon Nzanga of Gokwe, who has been charged with murder.

Sibanda, who was stationed at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission offices at the District Development Fund in Tsholotsho, was last seen on October 11 when he left for Bulawayo.

Police said on October 29, Sibanda’s brother Edmon and his uncle Tennyson Ndlovu, who had launched their own investigation, found the police officer’s vehicle, a Toyota Corolla, in Gokwe being used as a pirate taxi by Nzanga.

When police officers stopped Nzanga and asked for his driver’s licence, he produced Sibanda’s licence.

Nowhere to run … Police say Pardon Nzanga killed police officer and took his vehicle

Nzanga, who claimed to be a traditional healer, told investigators he had last seen Sibanda on October 4 when he came for “treatment” and left on the same day.

According to an internal police memo, Nzanga further told police that Sibanda’s vehicle had later been brought to him by one Admore.

Nzanga was later handed over to the Bulawayo’s CID Homicide.

“CID Homicide Bulawayo interviewed Nzanga who revealed that he had stabbed Constable Sibanda once on the neck with an okapi knife in Bochkloof Farm Hunters Gweru,” a November 3 internal police memo says.

“Nzanga led police to Bochkloof where he made indications on how he murdered Constable Sibanda, which then positively linked with the case of the dead body recovered from the same farm.”

A post mortem was not possible because the body was badly decomposed, police said.

Source: ZimLive