A 26-year-old Zimbabwe man has been murdered while trying to defend his fiancé from attackers just two months before their planned wedding, a newspaper reported Saturday.
Nkosi Ndlela was walking his wife-to-be home from work in Esigodini village, in southern Zimbabwe on Thursday evening, when they were harassed and assaulted by a group of gold panners.
“They started shouting obscenities at her and were proposing love to her in his presence,” Ndlela’s brother Mzondiwa told the state-run Chronicle.
“One of them struck him on the thigh with an axe and he started bleeding profusely.”
He died later on admission at hospital in the nearby city of Bulawayo.
No longer safe
The murder suspects are still at large. Residents of Esigodini said gang violence among miners was making live misery for them. A mourner at Ndlela’s funeral said: “Our children can no longer play outside and we have to take our daughters to school and back because it is just not safe anymore.”
Zimbabwe’s gold panners are notorious for their lawless behaviour. This week 11 were arrested in the southern mining town of Gwanda for killing a rival over a disputed mining claim.
The gang, armed with machetes, axes and stones allegedly killed Ndodana Ncube at Mascot Mine on Monday, reports online news website
