HARARE – A 40-year-old man from New Bluffhill in Harare has been arrested and charged with culpable homicide after his pitbull attacked a man in the street and killed him, police said.
Mike Mupinga’s dogs have been a menace for local residents for years, ZimLive has heard.
National police spokesman Commissioner Paul Nyathi said Mupinga had been charged with culpable homicide over the death of Samuel Machara, 39.
The arrest “stems from an incident where his pit-bull dogs allegedly attacked and mauled Machara to death,” Nyathi said.
“The body of the victim was found near the suspect’s residence with dog bite wounds. The body was referred to the Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals mortuary for postmortem,” he added.
Mupinga has several pitbulls, ZimLive heard.
“He keeps them in a house with half a durawall. We complained but he ignored us,” said one neighbour.
“It was teeming with dogs in that house, but there are not as many now because they have been killing each other.”
Another neighbour revealed that when a house helper from the neighbourhood was bitten by the dogs, Mupinga paid for her treatment and got her a nurse to stop her filing a police report which would have led to the dogs being put down.
Other locals said friends were too scared to visit them because of the notoriously vicious dogs which roam freely outside.
Pitbulls are banned in many countries, including the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand. Other countries have restrictions on pitbulls, including keeping them leashed and muzzled in public spaces.
Journalist Maynard Manyowa is familiar with Mupinga’s pitbulls.
He recalled: “In 2023 they chased my kids. Last year they killed another dog. Owner was rude when we pleaded with him. His dogs move around as a pack at night and cause real terror. They have killed people’s cats, dogs and chickens.
“This isn’t the first attack on people either. Council and some authorities came in 2024 in response and took away some strays. Some were taken. But owner claimed they were not strays. I have no kind words for the owner.”
Former Harare deputy mayor Kudzai Kadzombe said: “I have called the SPCA and they have taken four dogs from the property – two pitbulls, one rottweiler Hungarian mastiff.”
In May 2022, John Gavhera from Selborne in Bulawayo was killed by his own pitbulls after jumping over the wall to gain access to the house, having forgotten his house keys.
In March 2023, a nine-year-old girl died from injuries sustained in a pitbull attack in Harare’s Whitecliffe neighbourhood.
In the same month, a 68-year-old security guard died from a pitbull attack at business premises along Sherwood Crescent in Waterfalls, Harare.
