In Zimbabwe, a man was axed to death by his colleagues in front of his wife following a dispute over US$40.

iHarare reports that the chilling incident occurred on Saturday, the 22nd of August in Makwikwi village under the Chironde cooperative area in Shurugwi.

According to the publication, the now-deceased John Matendere used to work with his two colleagues, Cady Gombe (25) and Kelvin Mbiri (24), also from Makwikwi Village.

The three were all illegal miners at Wandara Mine where they used to mine gold. On the fateful day, the three of them got into an argument over how they should share the proceeds of their work regarding US$40. It is reported that Matendere managed to prevail in the argument, although the other two capitulated in bad grace.

It seems that despite acceding, Gombe and Mbiri were not pleased about how they had lost the argument and somehow felt that Matendere had cheated them. The two then spent the rest of the day conniving and plotting on how they would get their revenge on their colleague.

Later on that day, just before midnight Gombe and Mbiri made their way to Matendere’s home where they forced the door open. After making their way into the house, the pair pulled a knife and threatened Matendere’s wife with death if she made any further noise. They then allegedly struck Matendere with an axe twice before leaving him for dead.

Gombe and Mbiri have since fled the area. However, their families approached the Matendere family and after some negotiations agreed to pay five head of cattle as compensation so that Matendere could be buried.

These details were confirmed by Ward 19 councillor, Brian Chiteme who had an interview with the publication.

“We lost our son after misunderstandings arose over the sharing of money. They struck the deceased with an axe in full view of his wife. Burial for Matendere was expected yesterday  after the suspects’ families agreed to pay five beasts,” said Chiteme.