A jilted gold panner who crashed his 73 year old neighbour’s head to death has been given life in prison.

H suspected him of having an affair with his ex-girlfriend before tying the woman up with barbed wire and kidnapping her, has been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Hloniphani Ngulube of Altyre Farm in Fort Rixon, Insiza district axed the now deceased, who was not named in court, before pounding his head with a big stone when he found him with his ex-girlfriend.

He tied his ex-girlfriend, Ms Petronella Ndlovu’s hands with a piece of barbed wire before kidnapping her for two days.

Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nicholas Mathonsi convicted Ngulube of murder with actual intent and kidnapping.

He jailed Ngulube for life on the murder and sentenced him to an additional five years for the kidnapping offence.

Justice Mathonsi said although Ngulube suffered from the swirls of passion and pangs of jealous, his actions were not a justification for the crimes he committed.

He described Ngulube as a heartless sexual pervert who targeted defenceless women.

“Nothing can atone for the savage killing of a 73 year-old man who was minding his own business at his home thinking that he was safe. What we have here is a man who was rejected by a woman because of his abusive tendencies. He simply could not accept rejection because he had harboured this obtuse and indeed warped mentality that a woman is an object of appropriation by a man, a piece of chattel which he could own. – State Media