A Zimbabwean heart-eater sentenced to 18 years in jail in SA

Convicted killer and alleged “heart-eater” Andrew Chimboza was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the Western Cape High Court on Wednesday.

“I am of the view that a sentence of 18 years is appropriate,” Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said in courtroom 11.

Chimboza, dressed in worn brown clothes, did not have an expression on his face and was lead out the room with shackles on his hands and feet.

Binns-Ward said the brutality of the assault and Chimboza’s absence of remorse outweighed his personal circumstances and almost blemish-free past.
However, there was no basis to declare him a danger to society based on psychiatric assessment, which found he had no mental illness and rated low in terms of risk and psychopathology.

As part of a plea agreement, Chimboza had pleaded guilty to killing 62-year-old Mbuyiselo Manona at the home of a former client last June, after a disagreement.
Manona was his ex-client’s lover, and had apparently accused Chimboza of having sex with his partner.
Manona died from incisions to the upper body and blunt force injuries.
Accounts from three people during sentencing arguments pointed to Chimboza removing Manona’s heart, cutting it up and eating it. No mention of that was made in his plea agreement.
The forensic pathologist who conducted the post-mortem said that the heart was not present in the chest cavity and instead presented to him in numerous pieces in a plastic bag.
He told the court the pieces were cleanly incised blocks of flesh.
Binns-Ward was to have sentenced Chimboza in February but ordered that he be admitted for observation so a panel could determine whether he was a danger to society, and assist him in arriving at an appropriate sentence.