19 February: Salisbury High Court
CHARLES CHITEWA (20), of Nyamaropa Tribal Trust Land, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment, (4 years of which was conditionally suspended for 5 years), on conviction of recruiting a juvenile and 20 others for guerilla training. It was alleged that the juvenile, aged 15, had written to Chitewa in July 1975 asking for advice as to how he and others from the Regina Coeli Mission could get across the border into Mozambique. Chitewa, who was a local ANC secretary, was said, with the help of a relative, to have provided directions, a map, and the name of a contact in Mozambique.
26 February
ROBERT MARUNGISA, (33), a resident of Mount Pleasant, Salisbury, and employed by a firm in Avondale, was sentenced to 18 years imprisonment on being found guilty of murder as an accomplice. According to the State, Marungisa had assisted a group of "terrorists" to murder a Mr. Mairos Nyamunda in the Mtoko Tribal Trust Land in September 1975, by pointing him out as a "sell-out". Passing sentence, the judge described the case as a borderline one between prison and the death penalty, insofar as Marungisa had "acted on the spur of the moment" and it was impossible to tell what his motives had been.
11 March: Salisbury High Court
WILSON KAMWENDE URURI and JOSIAH MASANGO were each sentenced to 20 years jail, and ARIOT CHIMOPOPO to 16 years, on being found guilty of pointing out "collaboraters" and "informers" to the guerillas. The trial, one of the longest for some time in the High Court, lasted 9 days. Much of the time was taken up by a "trial-within-a-trial" to investigate claims by the accused that they had been assaulted by the police in order to elicit statements.
18 March: Salisbury High Court
PLAN GWEDE, a 20-year-old guerilla was sentenced to death on conviction of the murder of a white farmer, Mr. Peter Knight, at Tiripano Farm, Doma, in May 1975. He was further sentenced to 26 years imprisonment for committing an act of terrorism by shooting at a white tsetse control officer in the Vuti African Purchase Area in March 1975, and for possessing arms of war. His companion FANUEL CHINEMUNGU (21) received a 24-year prison sentence on the same charges.
19 March: Salisbury Regional Court
Two married women from Umtali received prison sentences on conviction of aiding and abetting three girls to leave Rhodesia for guerilla training. ROSI VASHOO (32) from Devonshire Township, Umtali, was sentenced to 4 years imprisonment, 3 of which were suspended, while an unnamed 17-year-old received a 2-year conditionally suspended prison sentence. The two women were alleged to have helped girl pupils from Highfield Community School, who had arrived in Umtali by train, to cross the border into Mozambique.
26 March: Salisbury High Court
LUCKSON TIRIBOYI, a guerilla aged between 22 and 25, was sentenced to death on being found guilty of the murder of a Rhodesian soldier and of having arms of war. Tiriboyi had been wounded and captured following an engagement between security forces and guerillas in the Shamva district in August 1975. The soldier, who was flying overhead in a helicopter, was killed by a bullet fired by another guerilla. Mr. Justice Macauley, drawing on the legal doctrine of "common purpose", found Tiriboyi to be responsible for the death as an accomplice.
At the end of March, an unnamed man aged about 25, was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for committing an "act of terrorism". He was alleged to have been one of six Africans who had entered Rhodesia one night in July 1974 and abducted a villager. The victim was said to have been taken back to Mozambique and killed. The accused was arrested in Rhodesia a year later.
(B) APPEALS
KUREHWANDADA MUZHERI, sentenced to death in November 1975 for recruiting eight people for military training (see Focus No.2), was partly successful on appeal on 23 February. His sentence was commuted to 18 years imprisonment with labour. Muzheri (25) was a junior ANC official in Que Que district.
CHIREZI WAYENI, a 30-year-old guerilla sentenced to death in October 1975, (see Focus No.2 p.12), had his appeal dismissed. Wayeni was arrested following engagement with security forces in which he was seriously wounded.
On 2 March, an appeal by CHRISTOPHER NHIRI against the death sentence was also dismissed. Nhiri, a member of a guerilla group, had been captured after a battle with security forces in which two members of the Rhodesian African Rifles were killed. He was convicted of their murder on the doctrine of common purpose with the guerilla leader.
JOHN HLENGANI, a 65-year-old villager from Victoria Province, has also been turned down at the appeal stage. He was sentenced to death in October 1975 for allegedly taking three nephews across the border into Mozambique for military training.
By mid-March, no decision had been reached on the appeal by REZA NYAMARUPA and IGNATIUS MOTO against the death sentence for killing three members of the security forces and possessing arms of war. They had been convicted along with ELLIOT DUBE (22), in November 1975. Their ages, originally estimated at 17 and 18, were subsequently put at possibly only 15 and 17 by a Government dental officer.
