Two men convicted of murdering Harare cellphone dealer Sipho Million Ncube have each been jailed for 20 years, more than 6 years after he was lured from his trading spot and killed.
Elvin Saungweme Dongo and Dellon David Balani were sentenced by High Court judge Justice Malin Tommasi on Friday, 23 October 2026, a day after she found them guilty of the March 2020 murder. Their co-accused, Munyaradzi Mawadze, has not been sentenced with them. His case was separated and is to be heard in a different trial.
The killing began with what appeared to be a phone sale. Ncube, a dealer known around Ximex Mall, was approached on 12 March 2020 near the Chicken Slice food court along Angwa Street in central Harare. The men presented themselves as prospective buyers and asked about purchasing mobile phones.
The account given by the prosecution was that the group persuaded Ncube to travel with them, saying payment would be made in Waterfalls. Instead, the car travelled along Chiremba Road, past Epworth and towards Ruwa. Prosecutors said the vehicle reached a secluded place, where Ncube was robbed of 3 iPhone 11 Pro Max handsets and an undisclosed amount of cash.
He was stabbed several times and his throat was cut. His body was later found at a farm in Ruwa. A post-mortem examination attributed his death to acute anaemia caused by severe neck trauma from an incised wound.
The court case against Dongo and Balani turned on forensic findings, information they gave investigators and statements they had made in earlier bail proceedings. There was no direct eyewitness account of the killing. The prosecution relied on the combined weight of evidence gathered after Ncube disappeared.
Blood-stained clothing recovered from Dongo’s residence was linked through DNA testing to Ncube. Investigators also recovered a knife from a bushy area in Waterfalls. Blood on the knife was likewise linked to Ncube. Police told the court that Dongo pointed out where the body had been found, while Balani led detectives to the place where the knife was recovered.
Justice Tommasi had considered those circumstances in an earlier ruling, when she rejected the men’s applications for discharge at the close of the prosecution case. She said: “There is objective forensic evidence linking the blood found on the clothing recovered from the 1st accused’s residence, as well as that found on the knife pointed out by accused 2 and recovered in Waterfalls, to the deceased.”
The judge also considered statements made by the men during their bail applications. Those accounts placed them with Mawadze at or near the relevant locations around the time Ncube was killed. The court heard that their versions referred to a knife being used to inflict a fatal wound inside a vehicle in a remote area.
Dongo’s knowledge of where the body was found was considered alongside the clothing bearing Ncube’s blood recovered from his residence. Balani’s knowledge of where the knife had been discarded was considered alongside the DNA evidence on the weapon and his own account of being with the other men. The judge ruled that the evidence required both men to answer the charges. They later gave their defence before being convicted.
The case had been moving through the courts for years. Ncube’s relatives became concerned when he did not return home and reported him missing on the day he disappeared. His disappearance prompted searches by family members and people connected to his business. Detectives from the Criminal Investigation Department’s Homicide section later took over the inquiry and traced his final movements.
The investigation led police to Mawadze, then a first-year law student at the University of Zimbabwe. Police searched for him and located him in Masvingo before bringing him to Harare for questioning. The prosecution later alleged that, after Ncube’s death, Mawadze used the dealer’s phone to send a text message saying he had been kidnapped. The message was said to have been intended to make relatives believe Ncube was still alive.
Dongo, Balani and Mawadze appeared at Harare Magistrates’ Court on 26 March 2020. They were initially denied bail and advised to approach the High Court. They were later granted bail as the case continued through remand proceedings.
The trial process changed after the 3 men were first brought before the High Court together. Mawadze’s lawyers sought a separate trial, arguing that the other accused had become hostile and were shifting blame towards him. The request was initially rejected, but a later application to separate the proceedings was granted. Dongo and Balani were eventually tried together, while Mawadze’s case took a different path.
That separate case raised questions about who could preside over it. Several serving High Court judges declined to hear the matter because Mawadze’s father, Justice Garainesu Mawadze, was also a judge. Justice Christopher Dube-Banda was the only serving judge who agreed to take the case. Mawadze challenged his continued involvement, arguing that the judge’s conduct during earlier proceedings showed apparent bias and would affect his ability to receive a fair hearing.
In June 2024, the Supreme Court upheld Mawadze’s appeal and directed that Justice Dube-Banda step aside. The top court said the matter was unsuitable for a serving judge who sat on the same bench as Mawadze’s father and said it should instead be heard by a retired or foreign judge. That ruling added a further step before the separate trial could proceed.
The issue became more prominent after Justice Garainesu Mawadze was elevated to the Supreme Court. His son’s case is still distinct from the concluded trial of Dongo and Balani. The 20-year terms imposed this week apply to the 2 men convicted by Justice Tommasi; no equivalent sentence has been handed down to Mawadze.
The new sentences close one part of a case that began with Ncube’s disappearance from central Harare and stretched across multiple court proceedings. The evidence presented against Dongo and Balani connected a blood-stained garment, a knife recovered in Waterfalls, their knowledge of locations linked to the killing and their earlier statements placing them with Mawadze. After considering the case and hearing their defence, the High Court convicted them and imposed a 20-year prison term on each.
For Ncube’s family, the sentences follow years in which the investigation, searches and court hearings kept the circumstances of his death before the courts. The separate proceedings involving Mawadze remain the next unresolved part of the case.