Thursday, March 28, 2024
HomeLocal NewsRITUAL MURDER? - SHOCKED FAMILY MOURNS 28-YR-OLD RITUAL MURDER VICTIM

RITUAL MURDER? – SHOCKED FAMILY MOURNS 28-YR-OLD RITUAL MURDER VICTIM

LINDA SOKO TEMBO writes

IN what is suspected to be a ritual murder, a young man of Lusaka’s Kanyama compound died after his genitals were sliced off.

On Friday, June 14, 2019 Chanda Simutanda, 28, was brutally murdered in Lusaka’s Chunga residential area while he was looking for the funeral house for a brother-in-law at night.

He had apparently got lost and met his fate sometime after 21:00 hours when he last communicated with a family member.

His body was found the next morning without private organs in what is believed to be a ritual murder.

Body discovered at Chunga Ponds

Chanda Simutanda

Chanda was murdered at Chunga Sewer Ponds during the night and his family is devastated by the gruesome nature of his death.

In an earlier report, police said the skin covering the genitals had been removed.

However, Chanda’s father, Mr Simutanda, told The Sun in an interview that the genitals were missing.

Mrs Simutanda, the victim’s mother, cried when she saw reporters saying she had lost a child she regarded as her breadwinner.

All the other people gathered in the funeral house’s sitting room could not contain their emotions; they shed tears at the woman’s grief.

Mr Simutanda’s young widow, Maria, is shattered by the death of her husband who has left her with a two-year-old child.

The young woman wondered who was going to raise her child without her husband.

Harry Mwaanga Nkumbula Ward 11 Superior Branch Patriotic Front (PF) chairman Shadrick Simutanda narrated to the Sun how he received the death of his son with shock.

The Sun: What is the name of your murdered son?

Ritual Murder Timeline- Chanda Simutanda

Mr Simutanda: His name was Chanda Simutanda. He was 28 years old and had a wife and a two-year-old daughter.

Chanda used to be a casual worker. He did not have a full-time job.

The Sun: Sad indeed, sir. How did your son die?

Mr Simutanda: What happened was that my son Chanda had gone for a funeral in Chunga Township.

His sister lost her father-in-law who was a truck driver. He was involved in a road accident and that is how he died. 

Lately I have not been well and my son told me I should be home, that he would go for the funeral and represent the family.

That is how he left home. He had only been in Chunga once, and a lot of development has taken place, people have built.

Sister had given him directions

The sister had given him instructions where to drop off and how he should move to reach the funeral house.

He was told to drop off by the bridge and go straight up to where the sewer ponds concrete fence was.

And around 19:00 hours he called me that he had dropped off and I asked him if he had seen the road.

He said ‘yes we have seen the road’. He was with his friend who had accompanied him.

That is how they started walking. As they were walking he discovered that the place had really changed.

Chanda and friend get lost

Family to Chanda Simutanda

He was trying to find where the funeral house was and around 20:30 hours he called the younger brother and said he was lost; that he was unable to find the funeral house. 

The younger brother advised him to come back home if he was lost and that he would go back the following day during daytime.

He and his friend went back to the main road and stopped a bus.

He told his friend to board the bus and that he would remain because he did not have enough transport money to go back to Chunga the following day.

Chanda tells friend to go back home

‘Just go, l will look for the funeral house until I find it’.

My son even called me and told me that he had told his friend to come back home and that he would remain until he found the funeral house.

I asked him ‘why didn’t you come with your friend?’ He told me he did not have enough money to come back the following day. 

I told him he had made a mistake; he should have come back because he did not know the place well.

He should have come back and find transport for the next day. I told him he had made a mistake and that he should not have remained because he did not know the place very well.

21:00 hours Chanda gets lost

Around 21:00 hours again he called me that he had completely gotten lost.

I asked him what we were going to do because I am sick. I advised him to look for a police post and sleep there.

I suspect when he was going to look for the police post that is when he met with the suspected ritual killers.

Father receives phone call

I have no idea what had happened to him. I just received a phone call from people asking me if I knew Chanda and I told them he was my son, and they told me he had been killed.

And I asked where the incident had taken place. They told me, it was near Chunga cemetery near the Sewer Ponds. I told them to wait for me.

That is how I found transport and we started off with my son and a few other people.

As we were going I was called again; this time it was my son-in-law and he told me the police had come and picked the body and were taking it to the University Teaching Hospital (UTH).

I told them to wait because I wanted to identify the body before it was taken to the mortuary.

Missing genitals

When we got there I found that it was my son and he did not have a shirt.

He just had a small piece, he had been wearing a pair of jeans trousers but it was not there.

They just tied a small piece on his private parts and he did not have his shoes on.

I was curious; I wanted to know why that part had been covered. I found that the private parts had been removed.

I told the police officers if we could take him to the mortuary at UTH.

I am appealing to the government to come on board and help me in whichever way possible.

As a family we do not want to put the blame on the police officers like they are not working.

There are more ordinary people than the police officers. Police can’t manage to be everywhere.

Mother’s comment

window Maria Simutanda (in Black)

And Mrs Simutanda said she had seven children and three were dead living her with four.

“I looked at my son, Chanda, as our breadwinner and he has just been killed.

“She appealed to the government to find the culprits and bring them to book before more lives are lost,” she said between sobs.

Meanwhile, Mr Chanda’s widow, Maria Simutanda, also appealed to the government to apprehend the suspected ritual killers who had killed her husband because her child was too small to lose her father.

Police are investigating the murder.

Chunga is not very far from George and Zingalume townships which were rocked by ritual murders in 2015.

RELATED ARTICLES

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular

Recent Comments

Observer. on SEX PILLS IN WATER
Dr. I.P.A. Manning on THE BAN OF POACHERS IN ZAMBIA
Lulumbi on EXPENSIVE WORSHIP
Patrick Bwalya on THE ALEX CHOLA FACT-FILE
Patrick BWALYA on DRIVER HACKED, LEFT FOR DEAD