The Sunday News
Vincent Gono/Robin Muchetu, Sunday News Reporters
THE 26-year-old Rodney Tongai Jindu who grabbed the headlines after allegedly confessing to killing two of his friends in a movie style and somewhat not so mythical circumstances is not an extraterrestrial alien.
Although the reasons for committing the heinous crimes remains a gigantic conspiracy wrapped in an enigma of controversy, he is not from Mars, neither is he some incarnation of the biblical Melchizedek who had no father or mother, family or friends. Jindu has had both, including girlfriends, something that confirms his human nature.
The character and persona that he carries on the surface was unthinkably that of a murderer, a cold blooded murderer for that matter. Yet beyond the coating that people see in the smiling handsome and “saladic” face lies the steely, almost unshakable and cruel person capable of the worst brutality, if charges are true.
He looks quite innocent and his facial features are that which one, even a stranger could trust. He seems incapable of harming, berating and intimidating even a puppy out of the way.
He is a former pupil of the affluent Petra High School and the school has a lot of reverence, it is venerated and is not for the Jack and Jills of this world, something that also confirms his elitist background and those who shared notes with him at school could not hold back their shock and fright at the news of their former classmate confessing to killing two of his friends in such spine-chilling details with a somewhat reckless abandon.
“I always had lunch at school with this guy. We sat next to each other on my first day at Petra. He was the most humble person in that whole school. Not so sophisticated but confident and quite welcoming. I cannot believe he would do something like this. Umuntu umbone umesabe shuwa,” said a woman who attended Petra High School at some point with Jindu.
Tongai, his middle name is Shona loosely translated to mean judging or you can judge. And that is exactly what people in Bulawayo and beyond are doing — judging.
Judging his actions, asking why a handsome young man who attended a prestigious school like Petra High would commit such a blood cuddling crime.
Those who interacted with Jindu generally described him as a reserved character with a mania for secrecy and sing praises for the young man.
His schoolmates who spoke to the Sunday News on condition of anonymity said due to his reserved nature he was a loner.
“Tongai was a loner; he hung around himself all the time. Rarely would you see him mingling with others, he kept to himself always and that was just the way he was,” said a former classmate.
She further described him as someone who seldom took time to be with his peers no matter how interesting the activity was.
She spoke of a time that Jindu proposed to her in high school.
“He was at one point interested in me, he had feelings for me and he told my friend. He then approached me and we exchanged pleasantries. He told me that he liked me and before I even responded he ran away. He was very shy indeed, which now boggles me how then he went on to kill people looking at his character as we grew up,” she said.
He also played rugby at school and his coach for six years in the rugby second team at Petra High, said Jindu was a rather quiet young man.
“Very quiet and reserved guy, he rarely interacted with his peers but stuck to himself always. I am rather shocked when I hear all these stories about him, I coached him for six years and I did not see any hint of this coming,” said the coach who, however, requested that his name not be published.
“Wayengu mazithulela (he was quiet), all he did was come to play rugby and when a child is passionate about what he does, you do not see any odd thing so all I noticed was his love for the game and not an ounce of oddness in his character,” he said.
He too has childhood friends who he grew up with in Queens Park East among them one of his victims Cyprian Kadzurunga.
One of his friends said they grew up together and remembers him so well.
“We grew up together in Queens Park, we played soccer together in the streets all the time during our primary school years.
He was of course closer to ‘Cy’ (Kadzurunga) as we used to call him but we hung around together so much.
“I cannot say there was anything queer about Tongai when we were growing up, we did spend a great amount of time together in the neighbourhood and we did the things kids do. We did have the usual squabbles during our soccer matches but that was normal, one wouldn’t say he was violent by intent,” said the man.
He said they also attended Roman Catholic Church every Sunday with Jindu and the late Kadzurunga at St Andrews in Kingsdale suburb. However, the man made an interesting revelation.
“Tongai did have a temper, we would realise it during our soccer matches but we dismissed it as just a part of growing up and boys being boys we were bound to fight. We didn’t know that one day we would be reading about him killing our best friend Cy and his other friend,” he lamented.
Could the reserved nature of Jindu have been a cover up for his bad temper? Did he not want people to know the real person he was or it was just his nature?
Like so many young men of his age he also had a love life and a local woman said a friend of her daughter was being courted by Jindu just under a year ago.
A lady was telling me that this man (Jindu) was keen on her daughter over a year ago. However, when she first met him she had a bad feeling about him and told her daughter to leave him alone and that he shouldn’t come to her house. The sixth sense or is it instinct is powerfully amazing,” she said.
Even now Jindu was still church going although he had moved from Catholic to Eagle Life Ministries shepherded by Prophet Blessing Chiza and his churchmate said, “We attended the same church and I even chatted with this guy, I never suspected he could be so twisted,” said a woman in a Facebook post.
A forensic psychiatrist at Ingutsheni Central Hospital Dr Elena Poskochinova said people like Jindu needed serious psychiatric evaluation.
“In such cases one would need psychiatric assessment to determine whether he/she has a mental illness or not. It is difficult to make a true evaluation before they are assessed,” she said.
Dr Poskochinova expressed hope that the courts would do a good job and if need be request that he be evaluated.
“If the issue of mental illness or something like that is determined, he can be admitted to Mlondolozi Mental Health Prison which is a high security institution.
“ At Mlondolozi we will need to get his family background to see what kind of family he grew up in, a family member like his mum or dad will have to write a family affidavit which will detail his life. We can go further to get a school report from the school head or teacher who was close to him to get a report about his character,” she said.
She added that from there he would be visited by a psychologist who would assess his behaviour to determine what kind of person he was, whether he had a form of mental illness or not.
“We will move further and do the tests to determine if his condition is really mental because some people fake mental illness.
His crime seems cruel and unpredicted. It’s quite unusual to kill people who are close to you. He could have killed two strangers but he killed two friends which is very odd.”
However, Jindu is yet to go for trial and was remanded in custody. The issue of mental illness has not been raised after he allegedly confessed to killing one friend after being promised a kombi and $20 000, and the other for getting to know of his first hit. Efforts to get a comment from his father Mr Charles Jindu were fruitless as he was not reachable.
