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Freeman Razemba–Crime Reporter 

At 2.05pm yesterday, a Malaysian passenger plane screeched to a halt at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport in Harare, under partly cloudy weather. 

For scores of people who had come to welcome their relatives, friends and business partners, it was difficult to sense that something was amiss.

But for airport staff, taxi drivers and usual visitors, the heavy security presence was telling.  On occasions like these, rumours abound.

Apparently, the arrival of the aircraft signalled the landing into detention of one passenger, for long wanted by police for three murder cases and an attempted murder. 

Aboard the plane was a passenger known in Mozambique as Armando Quenete Muchanga and in Eswatini as Xolile Mtsali.

The same passenger was known in Zimbabwe as Peter Dube.

 His time as a fugitive ended when he was arrested in Ireland last June after our sister paper The Sunday Mail published an exposé on how he escaped from Zimbabwe.

 It was in Mozambique that Dube was exposed to have fake documents, hence his deportation.

Yesterday, Dube seemed unaware that a team of detectives was awaiting him at the airport. Zimbabwe Republic Police detectives from the CID Homicide Crack Team stood ready to pounce on him on arrival.

Clad in an orange T-shirt, a black track bottom and looking clean shaven, Dube was arrested as he passed through the arrivals section at around 2.45pm after all formalities were done.

One of the senior officers read to him the offences that he is facing and his rights as is procedural. 

Also present at the airport were officers from the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) Harare offices.

Dube was then whisked away in handcuffs and leg irons to Gweru, aboard a Toyota Fortuner with two escort vehicles in tow for further investigations.

 In an interview, national police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul Nyathi confirmed the arrest.

“Firstly we want to thank Zimbabweans for their patience as we were conducting investigations. And, I want to make it clear that Peter Dube has not been extradited. What happened is that he has been deported from the Republic of Mozambique due to fake national identity and passport documents. 

“So precisely, these are the facts on the ground. Anything in terms of the investigations, in terms of the court appearance, will be advised to the public and to the media in due course,” he said.

In April 2021, Dube who was a popular car dealer in Gweru, allegedly shot dead his second wife’s best friend Gamuchirai Mudungwe and Shelton Chinhango. He then allegedly turned the gun on his second wife Nyasha Nharingo’s sister, Nyaradzo and killed her. Nyasha miraculously survived the gunshot wounds.

Thereafter, Dube fled the country, reportedly via South Africa, before relocating to Eswatini, where he changed his identity to Xolile Mtsali. From Eswatini, he travelled to Ireland, where he sought asylum.

It is not yet clear at what stage Dube obtained Mozambican documents, renaming him Armando Quenete Machanga, which made Ireland deport him to Maputo after a breach of immigration rules.

On the fateful day, Dube is said to have approached his second wife, Nyasha Nharingo, and her suspected lover Shelton Chinhango — also a car dealer — who were seated in a minibus parked outside a flat in Gweru’s central business district (CBD), where she lived.

He allegedly fatally shot Shelton at close range and turned the gun on his second wife’s best friend, Gamuchirai Mudungwe, whom he shot in the chest.

She died instantly.

He then shot Nyasha and her sister Nyaradzo. The former survived gunshot wounds and lived to tell the story but Nyaradzo died.

It is believed Dube and Nyasha had a long-standing dispute, with the former convinced the latter was cheating on him.

He is expected to appear in court soon.