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Rutendo Nyeve, Sunday News Reporter
TO some, July 1, is a day when the nation honours the late Vice-President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo, who passed away on that date in 1999.
However, for Mhlupheki Ngwenya (52), it is a day that reminds him of a personal tragedy that has seen him spend almost half his life in jail.
That was the day a domestic violence incident at his rented home in Bulawayo’s Sauerstown suburb led to the heartbreaking death of his five-year-old son, resulting in his conviction and subsequently having the death sentence handed by the Bulawayo High Court in 2008.
Having spent the last 25 years behind bars, Ngwenya is the longest-serving inmate at Khami Maximum Prison, where he was incarcerated for the murder of his son.
The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment in 2017.
In an interview with Sunday News at Khami Maximum Prison, Ngwenya narrated how at 26 years old, a misunderstanding with his wife escalated into an ordeal that would shatter his life dreams.
“I committed the offence of murder on July 1, 1999, the day on which the late Vice President Joshua Mqabuko Nkomo died. What happened is that, I had a misunderstanding with my wife. My wife, in the process, used our son as a shield which resulted in him severely hitting the wall where he got injured and passed on.
“My wife reported that I had beaten up my son and killed him. That is when I was taken to Sauerstown Police Station. I was then taken to court where I was remanded to the then Khami Maximum Prison, which is now Khami Remand Prison,” he said.
Due to various challenges faced by the judicial and other relevant stakeholders at the time, Ngwenya was placed on remand for nine years as his trial failed to kick off.
“My case dragged up to 9 April 2008, when I was convicted and given a death sentence. During the same year, I was then taken to Harare Central Prison where inmates on death row are kept. I appealed at the Supreme Court against the death sentence and my response came on July 3, 2017, which commuted it to life sentence.
“I was then taken to Chikurubi Maximum Prison up to 2019. I was transferred to Khami Maximum Prison, which is nearer to my relatives. This means I have been in prison for the past 25 years and five months,” said Ngwenya.
Having spent almost half of his life traversing prisons in the country, Ngwenya is optimistic that he will eventually come out of prison via the amnesty route.
He said if that occurred, he would come out empowered due to the rehabilitation efforts being made by the Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services (ZPSC), including offering him a chance to education.
“I have since engaged myself in studies and I was supposed to sit for my Ordinary Level examinations but I could not as I did not have a National ID. Fortunately, the ZPCS Officer in Charge of Khami Maximum Prison managed to take me to Tredgold, where I took my ID. As such, I am hoping to sit for my examinations next year. “I am happy that I will go out with something I would have achieved in my life. Unfortunately, I managed to benefit from these programmes a bit late as I stayed a long time in remand and on death row, where I could not benefit,” said Ngwenya.
He said the incident that led him to prison saddens him and at times when he thinks about it, he gets depressed.
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