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By Court Reporter<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n A 25-year-old Zimbabwean student at a South African university has been jailed for four years after he was convicted for killing Harare businessman and socialite Shingi Mukandi in a hit and run road accident last year.<\/p>\n Alfred Machipisa, a third-year student, was convicted of culpable homicide.<\/p>\n He was accused of failing to stop after a fatal road accident to both render assistance and report the accident to the police within the mandatory 24 hours.<\/p>\n Machipisa will however serve 3 years effective after Harare magistrate Edwin Marecha set aside a year of his sentence conditionally.<\/p>\n \u201cThe accused deserves punishment for his gross negligence.<\/p>\n \u201cA fine will trivialise the offences and worsening his case is that he did not stop after the accident.<\/p>\n \u201cHe only pitched up at the police after three days of manhunt. Maybe if he had stopped to check on the victim, if he was still alive or needed help, it would have been different,\u201d said the magistrate.<\/p>\n Court ruled Machipisa was negligent by travelling at an excessive speed while failing to keep a proper look out.<\/p>\n The magistrate said he also acted negligently by failing to render assistance or guarding Mukandi\u2019s lifeless body.<\/p>\n Prosecuting, Isheunesu Mhiti said on July 22 last year, around 9pm, Machipisa drove a white Isuzu KB300 due west along Harare Drive while trailing Mukandi\u2019s green Kawasaki motor cycle.<\/p>\n Mhiti said as Machipisa passed number 201 Mt Pleasant, he negligently drove his Isuzu at an excessive speed in the circumstances and failed to keep a proper lookout for the road user ahead.<\/p>\n The vehicle that was involved in the accident<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMachipisa failed to keep a safe distance between his car and Mukandi\u2019s motorcycle that was ahead of him and as a result, hit him from behind,\u201d Mhiti said.<\/p>\n Due to the impact, Mhiti said Mukandi flew off the motorcycle and landed approximately 70 meters away from the left side of the tarmac.<\/p>\n His bike was picked some 100 meters away from the point of impact.<\/p>\n Court heard that Mukandi\u2019s body and the damaged motorcycle were discovered by a passer-by who called for an ambulance.<\/p>\n The ambulance crew declared Mukandi dead at the scene. An autopsy was carried out on Mukandi\u2019s body at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals and concluded that he died due to injuries sustained in the accident.<\/p>\n At that time, Machipisa had hidden his car at his father\u2019s place in Harare\u2019s Mabelreign and handed himself to the police three days later saying he was still in shock.<\/p>\n Born in 1984, Shingi was the Executive Director and Head of Operations for Freight World which is one of the leading shipping, forwarding and customs clearing organisations which was established in 1991.<\/p>\n The businessman and socialite was known for his partying ways and was a biker.<\/p>\n The post Shingi Mukandi\u2019s killer driver jailed 4 years<\/a> appeared first on NewZimbabwe.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n
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