HARARE – A serial killer who allegedly killed five homeless men in Harare has been linked to three other homicides in Bulawayo, police said on Tuesday as a 20-year-old man was charged with the murders.
Ntandoyenkosi Ndlovu, who also sleeps rough in Harare’s CBD, was arrested on Monday after attempting to kill another vagrant, police said. He faces a sixth charge of attempted murder.
Between August 28 and September 4, police spokesman Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi said Ndlovu targeted homeless people as they slept and crushed their heads with bricks before cutting their stomachs open with broken glass.
After removing the victims’ genitals and internal organs, Nyathi said Ndlovu “would then boil or braai the human parts at any open fire place and consume them.”
“The suspect has been linked to three murder cases committed in Bulawayo in 2020 where, in January, he crushed a victim’s head in Bellevue suburb using a brick after he found him drunk and asleep in his yard,” Nyathi said.
In December 2020, Ndlovu allegedly crushed another man’s head in Makokoba “after finding him asleep by the roadside.”
“He again crushed another man’s head using stones at Sekusile Shopping Centre in Nkulumane after finding him sleeping on a pavement. He then fled to Harare,” Nyathi added.
ZimLive on Monday broke the story of a police hunt for a serial killer after five bodies of homeless men were picked up at four different locations in Harare in a space of a week.
Police said they had found no evidence to suggest the killings were for ritual purposes.
Appearing before Harare magistrate Dennis Mangosi on Tuesday, Ndlovu was charged over the five Harare murders. He made a confession to the five brutal killings as he opposed a police application for further detention to enable investigators to take him for indications at all the murder scenes.
“There’s no need or reason for us to do all that process (indications) because I’m admitting to the allegations. I’m not denying them,” Ndlovu told the magistrate, speaking in English.
Mangosi granted the extension, giving police until September 7 to wrap up their investigation before returning Ndlovu to court.
“The accused is in safe hands even though he is opposing the application,” Mangosi said. “For completeness of record, he must be taken for indications, so I will grant the application.”
Nyathi said Ndlovu was tracked down by detectives on Monday along Rotten Row Road after he allegedly attempted to attack a “street kid.”
Earlier in the day, police recovered the bodies of two homeless men near a flyover at Cripps Road and Remembrance Road. They had been attacked and killed in their sleep. One had his liver and intestines ripped out after being carved open with a broken bottle.
Ndlovu told police he was born at Mpilo Hospital in Bulawayo, and that he hails from Malaba village in Kezi.
