The Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ) pilot who murdered his girlfriend in Gweru on 25 November 2018 has been sentenced to 20 years in prison.
29-year-old Tashinga Musonza was found guilty of murder with constructive intent by Bulawayo High Court judge Justice Nokuthula Moyo in connection with the death of Ms Lucy Duve (37).
Musonza severely assaulted her girlfriend whom he accused of cheating on him with a workmate, George Himalaya Makwenjere.
A post-mortem carried out on Dube revealed that she had a fractured skull, blood clots in her brain and that her lungs were affected by the attack.
In her ruling, Justice Moyo said that the murder was not committed in aggravating circumstances. She ruled:
It would not be fair in our view to infer torture as the State relied on circumstantial evidence as there was an absence of information on how the assault was perpetrated.
Severe assault cannot be classified as torture and clearly, this is not a murder proven to have been committed to aggravating circumstances.
In this case, the mitigation does not give any peculiar circumstances that warrant this court to tamper justice with mercy.
The accused person assaulted a defenceless woman in a rather brutal manner.
The brutality of the assault as evidenced by the post-mortem report and lack of contrition on the part of the accused person will guide this court to settle for the upper range of the bracket in sentencing in such cases.
It is for these reasons that the accused person is sentenced to 20 years in jail.