Now up for murder: Horror as 3 Chikurubi prison inmates kill fellow prisoner

Three inmates at the Chikurubi Prison Psychiatric Unit have appeared in court facing murder charges after allegedly restraining and suffocating a fellow prisoner whom they accused of being violent.

Tafadzwa Musemani, Panashe Muregude and Godfrey Zikumba appeared before Harare provincial magistrate Ruth Moyo on Friday. The magistrate advised them to apply for bail at the High Court. The three remain in custody as the case moves through the courts.

The allegations arise from the death of Bornington Tanganyika, who was being held with the accused at the psychiatric unit. According to the State, the four inmates were accommodated in the same cell, identified in court papers as Cell 9.

Prosecutors allege that the incident happened on August 6, 2026, at about 7.15 pm. The three accused are said to have accused Tanganyika of being violent before joining together to restrain him.

“The accused persons then tied the complainant’s legs and hands behind his back using blanket straps while he was lying on the floor facing down,” the State alleges.

The court papers further allege that the accused covered Tanganyika’s head with his jacket and a towel. The coverings allegedly prevented him from breathing and he suffocated to death.

The matter was later reported to the police, leading to the arrest of the three inmates. They now face murder proceedings under Zimbabwean law.

The case has brought renewed attention to the dangers faced by prisoners inside correctional facilities, particularly inmates held in psychiatric units. Such units are intended to provide care and supervision for prisoners with mental-health needs, but the allegations before the court describe a cell in which three inmates were allegedly able to restrain another prisoner using blanket straps and cover his head without being stopped in time.

The ages of the accused have been reported as 38 for Musemani, 25 for Muregude and 23 for Zikumba. The spelling of their surnames differs slightly across reports, with some versions using Musenami, Mategude and Zikumwa.

The alleged killing is not the first prison-related case in Zimbabwe in which violence between inmates has reached the courts. In February 2023, two prisoners at Harare Central Prison were brought before a magistrate on murder charges after allegedly fatally assaulting another inmate. The accused, Nelson Chizuzu, aged 39, and Obey Chirandu, aged 40, allegedly attacked the prisoner after accusing him of attempting to sodomise one of them.

That case happened at Harare Central Prison and not at Chikurubi. It nevertheless showed how accusations involving sexual conduct can quickly become a source of violence behind prison walls. In the Harare Central matter, the accusation was not treated as a finding of guilt against the dead prisoner. It was presented as the alleged motive behind the assault, just as the claim that Tanganyika was violent is currently an allegation made in the Chikurubi case.

Other reports have also drawn attention to events connected to the Chikurubi area. In January 2026, a report about Chikurubi Damview said 27-year-old Tanyaradzwa Innocent Muzari died after a confrontation over fishing nets. Muzari had served an eight-year sentence for rape, and the report described him as a former inmate. The confrontation took place after his release, at about 3 am on a Sunday, while he and another former inmate were allegedly involved in fishing at the guarded dam. Police were reported to be investigating that death.

The current case is different because the alleged killing is said to have occurred inside the Psychiatric Unit, in a cell shared by the accused and the deceased. The State’s version places the alleged restraint, the use of blanket straps and the covering of Tanganyika’s head within the prison. It is now for investigators and the courts to determine what happened before, during and after the alleged assault.

Questions about supervision are likely to form part of the wider public interest in the case. The allegations raise questions about how inmates in a psychiatric unit are assessed, how prisoners are allocated to cells, how quickly staff can respond to a disturbance and whether potentially dangerous items can be used to tie a prisoner. Those questions are matters for the prison authorities and the evidence, rather than conclusions that can be drawn before the case is heard.

For the family of the dead prisoner, the court proceedings are expected to provide an official account of how Tanganyika died. For the prison service, the case places the operation of the Psychiatric Unit under scrutiny. For other prisoners, it raises the fear that an accusation made inside a crowded or closely confined cell can turn deadly before officers intervene.