A man from Tsholotsho who killed his neighbour’s son by hitting him on the head with a hammer before ripping his stomach open with a knife was treated for a mental problem by Tsholotsho South MP Cde Zenzo Sibanda, who is a traditional healer.
Lizwe Ncube callously bludgeoned six year old Obvious Mkhwananzi to death with a hammer on Saturday.
He tied the Grade One pupil’s body to a bicycle frame and ripped open his stomach.
After slaughtering the child, Ncube allegedly guarded the mutilated body.
It has emerged that Ncube a mental patient was for almost a year treated for his condition by Tsholotsho South legislator Cde Sibanda.
Cde Sibanda who is also Tsholotsho District Zanu-PF chairperson is a renowned traditional healer in the area.
On Wednesday, he confirmed having treated Ncube.
“He came from South Africa suffering from mental illness.  I stayed with him close to a year attending to him. I think it was eight months between 2011 and 2012,” said Cde Sibanda.

He said he surrendered Ncube to his relatives after being convinced that he was cured.
Cde Sibanda said Ncube’s mental problem could have been worsened by substance abuse.
He said he was dazed to learn that Ncube had committed the heinous crime, saying he knew him as a non violent person.
“This is a sad incident. I was shocked to learn that it was Lizwe who had done this.  His relatives should have taken him for treatment if they saw signs that he was losing his mind again,” he said.
Cde Sibanda urged relatives living with mental patients to take them to institutions that professionally look after them.
Tsholotsho police arrested Ncube amid calls that mental patients should be confined to mental institutions.
The incident comes at a time when the biggest mental hospital in Matabeleland, Ingutsheni Central Hospital in Bulawayo is facing a critical shortage of medicines for both its in and out of hospital patients.
Three nurses have been attacked by patients this year as patients go without sedatives.
Officials at Ingutsheni Central Hospital say the drug shortage has resulted in unsustainable cases of outpatients relapsing and needing re- admission at the crowded institution. Chronicle