Community Tolerance, Reconciliation and Development Trust (COTRAD) has urged villagers to prioritize peaceful resolution methods amid rising tensions over land disputes.
This follows the tradgic incident in Chiredzi district where an 82 year old man, Clemence Gwaure was attacked and killed by two brothers over disagreements regarding use of a piece of land.
“The organization emphasized the importance of dialogue and mediation to prevent such violent incidents,”said COTRAD.
According to police, on February 8, 2025 at around 1700hours Courage and Caronelfeld Mashiri, who had recently been deported from South Africa in November 2024 and January 2025 respectively, went to Gwaure’s homestead to settle the dispute between him and their father over the said piece of land.
A misunderstanding arose and the two grabbed Gwaure, kicked him all over his body and he fell to the ground, while the deceased’s wife pleaded with them to stop.
They continued assaulting him, dragging him along Samba Favasham Road, and at the same time Gwaure’s wife went and informed one Lovemore Mutumhe and other villagers of what was happening.
Unfortunately upon their arrival at the scene, they found Gwaure’s body lying on the ground as he was already dead and the brothers had vanished from the scene.
The following morning, members of the community managed to trick the brothers into believing that Gwaure was still alive, hence they could peacefully resolve the matter, and they came to a community gathering where they were apprehended and handed to the police.
When police arrived, Gwaure’s body had already been taken to his homestead and they noted that the body had bruises on the back, chest, face and on the hands.
The brothers were then arrested by police, and three pieces of sticks, two pieces of a brown leather belt, a torn black t-shirt were recovered from the scene.The deceased’s body was later taken to Chiredzi General Hospital for postmortem.
Staff writer/ TellZim