By Agencies
A POLICE officer who was convicted and sentenced to four years for assaulting a man to death has won his appeal at the Bulawayo High Court.
Nosizi Sinyolo appeared on Monday for an appeal hearing before Bulawayo High Court Judge Justice Mpokiseng Dube.
She was represented by Mr. Tinashe Dzipe, who argued that there was no identification parade to specifically identify the accused and that it was dark, making it impossible to accurately identify her.
He said, moreover, the State witnesses gave contradictory descriptions of the police officers.
“One of the witnesses told the court that the police officers were wearing reflectors while another witness told the court that he identified them by their uniforms,” he argued.
At the conclusion of the hearing, Justice Dube ruled in favour of the accused and said: “The incident happened in the dark and it defies logic how the complainant managed to identify the accused. The accused was with his four colleagues at the crime scene and to singularly finger the accused as the one who assaulted him is mind-boggling since it was dark. “The court concludes that it was a group assault. The conviction and sentence are set aside and the appeal is granted,” ruled Justice Dube.
Chief public prosecutor, Mr Kudakwashe Jaravaza, had told the court that the complainant is the late Bokhile Nkomo (43) from Bulawayo’s Cowdray Park suburb.
Sinyolo was accused of having committed the crime alongside her colleagues Bhekisipho Ndlovu, Hilton Gororo and Najo Sianyongole, who were acquitted at the close of the State case by the trial court.
The accused person and her acquitted accomplices are serving members of the Zimbabwe Republic Police and were attached to the Bulawayo Suburban District Police Reaction Group at the time the offence was committed.
On 1 September 2025 at around 10PM, the complainant was a passenger in a Honda Fit, which was stopped at a police roadblock at Nyamandlovu Turn-Off along the Bulawayo–Victoria Falls Road.
“The roadblock was being manned by police from Bulawayo West District. The accused persons, who were travelling in a Mahindra police vehicle registration 3626 M, arrived at the roadblock site and a misunderstanding ensued between the complainant and one of the accused persons,” said Mr Jaravaza.
The court heard that one of the accused persons, Joseph Chiranda, asked the complainant to move out of the vehicle and the complainant took time to disembark.
Mr Jaravaza told the court that one of the accused persons, Nosizi Sinyolo, went on to drag the complainant from the car and he fell down. Whilst lying on the ground, the same accused person kicked him twice in the stomach and other accused persons picked up the complainant, put him in the back of the police vehicle and drove him to Sauerstown Police Station.
The court heard that along the way to Sauerstown Police Station, the complainant was further trampled all over his body by some of the accused persons who were sitting with him at the back of the car.
Mr Jaravaza told the court that the complainant suffered stomach pains and started vomiting blood as a result of the assault.
The complainant was taken to Mpilo Central Hospital by his relatives where he was medically examined. Nkomo was treated and discharged. He later died while he was in South Africa.
