BULAWAYO – Two brothers who killed a taxi driver and a flea market trader within hours of each other have been sentenced to death at the Bulawayo High Court.

Freddy Dube, 36, of Toro Village in Lower Gweru and Thinkwell Moyo, 38, of Silobela were sentenced to die by hanging after Justice Nokuthula Moyo said they “butchered the two deceased persons in order to dispossess them of their belongings.”

Prosecutors described them as a two-man crime wave.

Dube and Moyo, who share a mother but have different fathers, are expected to return to the same court within weeks to face a third murder charge for killing a pirate taxi driver and robbing him of his vehicle.

The men’s trial heard that Dube, who was living in South Africa, returned to Zimbabwe on a revenge mission, pursuing a man he suspected of killing his friend.

Dube had a simple plan: he would steal a car; drive to Silobela and with the help of his brother capture his target; tie him to the back of the vehicle and drag him until he died.

Putting their plan into action, the men hired a pirate taxi in the Bulawayo city centre but the driver was struck with an axe from behind and his body dumped on the roadside.

The men drove towards Silobela, but the vehicle broke down after they drove into a pothole near Famona in Inyathi. They set fire to the vehicle and returned to Bulawayo to look for another car to steal.

Two weeks later, on April 16, 2018, the two men approached pirate taxi driver Dumenkosini Sibanda, and asked for a lift in his Honda Fit.

Sibanda’s body was discovered by a motorist at around 7PM near MacDonald Bricks, east of the city. He had been stabbed on the neck, the High Court heard.

The two men drove towards Silobela once again, passing through Inyathi where market trader Andile Ncube, 21, was guarding his wares after closing for the day.

They stabbed him several times and stole his goods which included blankets, solar panels, shoes and radios which they loaded in their car.

The police investigation uncovered that the man they went through all the trouble to find was not in Silobela.

Tracking the killer duo using a phone they stole from one of their victims, police were able to arrest Thinkwell Moyo while he was drinking at a shebeen in Gwanda, where he had gone to visit his girlfriend.

Police were also able to track down Freddy Dube in Silobela, where he was selling some of the stolen property.

Justice Moyo said the two men had been deliberate and calculating in committing the murders.

Sending them away to die on Monday, the judge said: “It is clear that the accused persons acted with an actual intent when they violently butchered the two deceased persons in order to dispossess them of their belongings.

“They killed two people over a short period of time and these murders were committed in aggravating circumstances warranting capital punishment.

“The courts have a duty to protect the sanctity of life through imposing harsh sentences to people like you. The two accused persons cannot escape capital punishment in the circumstances and accordingly, you are both sentenced to death by hanging.”

The two killers can appeal their sentences at the Supreme Court.

The first of the three murders will be separately tried before a different judge.