The ManicaPost
Dorcas Mhungu Post Correspondent
A Churchill High School Form 3 teenager escaped death by a whisker after an elderly man he had helped turned out to be a member of a gang that wanted to kill him for body parts.
Narrating the ordeal while in a queue for a head scan at Parirenyatwa Hospital on the fateful day, Prince Tapiwanashe Chibwe said he had just alighted from a kombi very close to his home when he saw an elderly man with “blood” on his body lying on the side of the road.
The elderly man who lied to Tapiwanashe that he had a heart problem told him that he was bleeding because of the heart condition. He asked Tapiwanashe for assistance to get to his car, a kombi that parked nearby.
Out of genuine empathy, Tapiwanashe helped the old man to his feet and walked with him to his car. As he helped him to get into his car, Tapiwanashe was attacked from behind and his head was repeatedly banged against the kombi and he was bundled into the kombi.
“I helped him get into his car and suddenly someone just came from behind me and hit my head against the kombi and I fainted.
“I found myself at Mabvuku turn-off in the middle of the bush and I didn’t know what was happening.
“The men were now four. I think the old man applied some red stuff that looked like blood,” Tapiwanashe said.
“They started beating me up, my chest, my legs, even my face. Then they started arguing and one of the men had a machete. One was saying which one should we start with? The head or the heart?”
Tapiwanashe said the gang members started arguing about the body parts. “One of them said if you get the head you will get more money and the other one said if I get the heart my money will be less and they started fighting.”
He said the argument degenerated into a fight and Tapiwanashe took advantage of the melee and ran away with my hands tied.
“I walked from the bushy area near Mabvuku turn-off to Greendale. My school shirt was torn when they were beating me up. I ran to Greendale and I got to Greendale around 7pm,” Tapiwanashe further said.
He said when he was about 50m from the house, Tapiwanashe saw his brother who was looking for him.
“My brother started running away when he saw me walking towards the house with hands tied. He did not know what had happened. I called him by name and I think he was confused by what he saw and he stopped running and he came to ask me what had happened.”
The school boy was with his mother at Parirenyatwa Hospital when he shared his story with The Manica Post while waiting to be scanned and X-rayed. Parirenyatwa Hospital staff refused to have Tapiwanashe photographed with his torn school shirt citing breach of hospital rules.
