BULAWAYO – The Supreme Court has set aside the murder conviction of Talkmore Mutanga, a game scout, and substituted it with a conviction for culpable homicide, ruling that the Bulawayo High Court had misdirected itself both on conviction and on the 15-year sentence it imposed.
Judges Nicholas Mathonsi, Hlekani Mwayera and Susan Mavangira handed down the ruling at the Bulawayo High Court last Friday, allowing Mutanga’s appeal following a hearing on July 20.
The case dates back to June 25, 2024, when Mutanga, then employed as a game scout patrolling the Nyawo River area of Debshan Farm near Fort Rixon in Insiza district shot and killed a suspected illegal gold panner during a confrontation at a riverbed.
Mutanga, 33, of Mutsango Village in Mutare, was on duty with a colleague, Noah Chumachavazungu, when the encounter occurred.
Mutanga stood trial at the Bulawayo High Court over three sittings before Justice Ngoni Nduna, who convicted him of murder on February 20 and sentenced him to 15 years’ imprisonment.
At trial, the court found that Mutanga had lain in ambush and fired without warning, rejecting his defence that he had acted to protect himself and his colleague from an armed attack.
On appeal, Mutanga argued that the High Court had wrongly rejected his version without applying the correct legal test, disregarded admitted evidence of a knife and signs of a struggle, and drew an inference of ambush unsupported by the ballistic evidence.
He also argued that the trial court should have treated with greater caution the evidence of the state’s principal witness, described in the record as the deceased’s brother and a fellow illegal panner.
The Supreme Court judges changed Mutanga’s original conviction to culpable homicide from murder, imposing a 24-month jail sentence wholly suspended for five years on condition that during that period he does not commit an offence involving the negligent killing of another person.
The court also ordered that Mutanga be released immediately, “unless otherwise lawfully detained.”
