MAKONESE J: The offences of malicious damage to property and assault are two distinct offences whose essential elements are separate and dissimilar. The penal provisions for the two offences are not the same. The offences are not similar in nature. Trial magistrates must treat these distinct offences separately with regards sentence. It is clearly incorrect to treat the charges of malicious damage to property and assault as one for the purposes of sentence, even in circumstances where the offences are closely linked in terms of time. A globular sentence is inappropriate for these offences. More
KABASA J: The accused is charged with murder as defined in section 47 (1) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23, in that on 2nd August 2020 at HloniphaniTapsonMoyo’s homestead, Denge Line in Tsholotsho, he unlawfully struck HloniphaniTapsonMoyo with a fire stand once on the head intending to kill him or realising that there was a real risk or possibility that his conduct may cause death and continued to engage in that conduct despite the risk or possibility. More
MAKONESE J: This matter raises the question of the doctrine of common purpose and its applicability in a matter where an accused admits having participated in the actual assault of the deceased, but avers that he dissociated himself from a fatal assault leading to the death of a victim.It is settled in our law that each individual in a common purpose case is to be judged on his own mensrea. The conduct of the accused on which criminal liability for the crime is founded consists not necessarily in an act which is casually linked with the death of the decease,... More
The accused is charged with murder as defined in section 47 of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act, Chapter 9:23. The accused caused the death of Kujani Mudenda by assaulting her all over the body with a switch intending to kill her or realising the real risk or possibility that your conduct may cause death but continued nonetheless. The accused pleaded not guilty to this charge but tendered a plea of guilty to the lesser charge of culpable homicide. More
The accused faces a charge of murder it being alleged that on the 26th of April 2022 and at a bushy area in Mbangiso Village, he unlawfully caused the death of Mirriam Ncube by striking her with a stick once on the head and thereby causing her death. The accused pleaded not guilty to the charge of murder but instead offered a limited plea to a charge of culpable homicide. More
