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Freeman Razemba: Crime Reporter

THE upsurge in murder cases countrywide as a result of petty issues which can easily be avoided, continue to worry police as people are now clearly not valuing the sanctity of human life. The petty issues include arguments during beer drink, fights over small amounts of money especially coins and infidelity, among others.During the past few months police have been conducting awareness campaigns urging people to respect the sanctity of life and avoid settling disputes through violent means.

Chief police spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba recently said the police envisage an environment where there are no murder cases in the country.

“Most of the cases involve minor issues that could have been solved or avoided. Drunkenness also contributed to some of the cases,” she said.

Snr Asst Comm Charamba said; “We have noted a disturbing trend where either a husband or wife kills his or her children before committing suicide because of either a domestic dispute or other differences,” she said.

She added that parents should know that children have a right to life and should be protected.

She urged members of the public to seek counselling from the police, churches, elders and traditional leaders instead of taking the law into their own hands.

Snr Asst Comm Charamba said police were embarking on awareness campaigns to educate people against domestic violence.

According to new a research by psychologists, people who commit familicide or uxoricide have a significantly different psychological profile than murderers who kill strangers.

In Zimbabwe the increased cases of murder are all too worrying and reported cases prove this.

An example is the case of a 36-year-old Magunje man who faces murder charges for allegedly striking and killing his uncle with a log. The uncle had taken the man to a prophet for alleged deliverance from evil spirits.

Cover Warasi, of Plot No. 40, Village 4 Lazy 5, Kasimure in Hurungwe, was not asked to plead when he appeared before Karoi magistrate Mr Obedience Matare facing charges of killing his father’s brother Goodluck Manyepa a fortnight ago.

He was remanded in custody to September 30.

It is alleged that soon after arrival from a prophet where Manyepa had taken Warasi for deliverance on September 13, the accused went berserk and struck his unsuspecting uncle several times on the head with a log.

Manyepa, who bled profusely, was rushed to Chinhoyi Provincial Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival. A post-mortem carried showed that Manyepa’s death was due to intra-cranial haemorrhage. After committing the offence, Warasi immediately fled the scene only to be arrested during the night the following day. A Form Two pupil at a high school in Mount Darwin was killed last Sunday by a schoolmate following an altercation over an electric pressing iron.

In another case, a Nyabira woman was found dead by her daughter, presumably after being killed by her husband over infidelity accusations.

Police said on September 14, the 39-year-old woman retired to bed with her husband who had been accusing her of infidelity and the following day her daughter knocked at the door but no one responded.

She forcibly opened the door and found her mother was dead, and her father, who is now the suspect, was nowhere to be found.

Last week, three people were killed in separate murder cases countrywide.

In one of the cases, a 25-year-old woman from Gwanzura Farm in Kadoma was stabbed to death after an argument with a colleague at a drinking place.

The colleague reportedly disappeared from the scene.

In the second incident, a 53-year-old man was stabbed to death with a knife after a misunderstanding over a woman in Wedza.

The now deceased arrived at his girlfriend’s house, knocked but there was no response. He then forced open the door and found his girlfriend with another man.

An argument arose and the man stabbed the boyfriend who died on the spot.

In one of the incidents, a Kwekwe man was beaten to death by another man for allegedly stealing bananas at PG Complex.

A supervisor at a bar in Bulawayo died after being stoned following a misunderstanding with a drunken man.

In Manicaland, a mentally ill man struck and killed his wife with a machete after accusing her of being a witch. In Kezi, a man was killed by his stepson following a misunderstanding over guarding a field.

In Chiweshe, Mashonaland Central province, a man believed to have been drunk killed his mother-in-law after she intervened when he was beating up his wife.

The man had come home late and drunk when he demanded money from his wife, resulting in a misunderstanding.

In June, three people were murdered in two days in separate incidents.

Police are also investigating a murder case which occurred at Grace Mlotshwa’s homestead, Mukono Line in Tsholotsho.

On June 11, 2016, at around 2000hours, Mthabisi Ndlovu (22) and Kidron Madida (16) had a misunderstanding over the ownership of a shovel.

Mthabisi pulled an okapi knife from his trousers pocket and stabbed Kidron once on the armpit. Madida died on the spot.

Another two murder cases which occurred in Ruwa and Chitungwiza are also under investigations.

In one of the cases, a 27-year-old man was found dead in Ruwa in a bushy area near a clinic. The man had his clothes burnt by a veld fire and he had a piece of tree fibre around his neck.