THREE soldiers from the Parachute Regiment at Inkomo Barracks, Darwendale, have been arrested for beating up a man to death after he had an altercation with his wife.

Challenge Msengezi, Paddington Tinei Muketiwa and Milton Kamutikaoma allegedly fatally assaulted Fortune Mutyambizi of Mutyambizi Village, Madziva, Mashonaland Central.

The three soldiers were not asked to plead to murder when they appeared before Mt Darwin magistrate Rutendo Muchena on Wednesday.
They were remanded in custody to August 8.

Allegations are that on July 23 at around 7pm in Madziva, Mutyambizi had a dispute with his wife Rumbidzai Sanyika over money and she fled from her matrimonial home to her father-in-law’s homestead for sanctuary.

After 30 minutes, the three soldiers allegedly went to the deceased’s father, Charles Mutyambizi and told him they were taking his son to their base for counselling.
“They allegedly added they wanted to physically chastise Fortune for harassing his wife.

The following morning, the State alleges, the soldiers returned to the Mutyambizi homestead requesting for a wheelbarrow to ferry Fortune whom they said was no longer walking.

Charles drove to the soldiers’ base where he found his son lying lifeless on the ground. The soldiers were allegedly adamant that Fortune be ferried to his father’s homestead for first aid. They allegedly tried without success to resuscitate him with warm water.

The trio allegedly left the scene on the guise that they would be coming back, but never returned.

The deceased’s father then made a report to the police and the three were subsequently arrested.

A postmortem revealed that Fortune had died from internal bleeding secondary to assault and cold-Daily News