They said the incident happened on Sunday last week.A male relative who preferred not to be named said Tapiwa died at Gweru Provincial Hospital on Wednesday last week as a result of the assault after spending 10 days in hospital.

“Tapiwa and his friend, Gondai Zamushiya, were coming from (Shurugwi) town. When they got to Sigauke’s shop, the deceased selected a few items that he wanted to buy. He then produced a $20 note that was sealed with sellotape intending to pay for his grocery. It was then that the shopkeeper indicated to him that the note was not acceptable as it was torn,” said the male relative.

The relative said an altercation ensued with Tapiwa arguing that the note had been given to him as change at another shop.He said Tapiwa then offered to seek counsel from the shop owner, a Mr Sigauke, when he saw his kombi arriving at the shop.

“The deceased assumed that it was Mr Sigauke who was driving the commuter omnibus and turned to go outside. However, when he got to the commuter omnibus he discovered that the vehicle was being driven by one of Mr Sigauke’s employees.

“Meanwhile, the shopkeeper immediately grabbed an axe which was under the counter and followed Tapiwa. When Tapiwa realised that it was not Mr Sigauke in the kombi, he turned preparing to leave. That is when he was struck once on the forehead by the shop-keeper,” said the male relative.

He said the kombi crew immediately took Tapiwa to Shurugwi District Hospital where the nurses first refused to attend to him as he did not have a police report with him.

Tapiwa’s mother, Mrs Gladys Nyamakate, said she was phoned by her son’s friend, Gondai telling her that Tapiwa had been seriously injured after he was struck with an axe following a misunderstanding with a shopkeeper.

“I rushed to the scene of the incident and found the police already there. They had handcuffed the shopkeeper. The police were together with the wife of the owner of the shop who accompanied them to the police station. I was told that Tapiwa had already been taken to Shurugwi Hospital and I rushed there. When I arrived, my son was groaning in pain as the nurses had not yet attended to him.

“They said they first wanted a police report for them to treat him. I rushed to the police. It was then arranged that my son be transferred to Gweru Provincial Hospital on the same day after the hospital staff concluded that Tapiwanashe’s injuries were severe,” she said.

Mrs Nyamakate said she was surprised to see the shopkeeper walking a free man on Tuesday and being allowed to conduct his normal duties at the shop.

“They re-arrested the man and locked him up after I raised concerns over the issue. At the moment the family is in some kind of a dilemma as we do not know when my son will be buried. We were advised by police that we should wait for a postmortem which is to be carried out in Bulawayo once they got fuel.

“What is however, paining me the most now is that some people are trying to coach the witness Gondai, to say that my son was axed while trying to rob the shop. I want the law to take its course so that the person who murdered my son gets his just desserts,” she said.

Midlands police spokesperson, Inspector Patrick Chademana said the police first released the shopkeeper because they had not at that time ascertained how serious the deceased’s injury was.

“Police , on the face of things, did not see how serious the injury was. We were however still continuing with investigations into the matter. The matter was also complicated in that at first, the deceased was the aggressor as our investigations have revealed that he wanted to rob the shop. He was the accused initially but unfortunately the shopkeeper used excessive force in his retaliation resulting in the death of Tapiwa.

“It is not like we did not want to put the accused shopkeeper behind bars. When we carried out our investigations later, they led us to arrest and detain the shopkeeper at Shurugwi Police,” he said.