The married couple faced justice to skip the border as they were told they had killed 4-year-old Nie from South Africa and were faced with justice to skip the border.
On March 27, 2025, defendants John Zvivi (36) and Arista Shibanda (35) were returned to Zimbabwe after a dramatic arrest in a neighbouring country.
The duo appeared before Harare Magistrate Ishnes Matva on Saturday. He advised them to detain and apply for bail in the High Court. They will return to court on April 11th.
The situation is that in April 2023, Susan Mandaza, the now-deceased young sister, Shoko, 4, and six-year-old, was left in custody of Zubimba’s aunt and husband.
The mother of the child, Nomsa Shibanda, is a sister to Arista.
After she returned to South Africa, Nomsa cared for the couple who allegedly started abusing their two children, leaving them with beating, beating them and denying the food.
The court heard that Princess Shoko succumbed to her injuries in July 2023 and died on July 23, 2023.
To cover up their heinous crime, the accused put the child’s body in a bag, thrust it into the boots of a Honda Fit car, and drove it into a Kwajana extension, where he dumped his body into the flow.
The court heard how the accused notified Nomsa Shibanda of the death of his daughter, but failed to provide her with a satisfactory explanation.
It was further heard that the mother of the deceased child has returned to Zimbabwe and reported that on August 1, 2023, a missing person case had been reported to ZRP Zibalasekwa.
The next day, the body of the murdered girl was found in a stream in dzvivarasekwa, Harare.
The body was actively identified and taken to Parirenyatova Hospital for post-testing. The pathologist’s findings were inconclusive as toxicological results were still pending.
Fearing arrest, Zvivi and his wife fled to South Africa, but the matter was widely circulated on social media, leading to arrest and ultimate extradition.
Takudzwa Jambawu has indicted this issue.
