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Freedom Mupanedemo
Midlands Bureau
When her rampaging husband, gun in hand, stormed into the bedroom where she sought refuge, grabbed her by the neck with the other hand, shoved her a little so she could face him, Nyasha Nharingo knew that her appointment with Saint Peter at the Pearl Gates was up, and uttered a silent prayer.

When he finally pulled the trigger, she had already accepted the fate of mere mortals; the finality of death. Regaining conscious in a hospital bed was as traumatising as the horror shooting itself to her.

“I am still traumatised, reliving the horror of that day. I feel like I am in hell,” the distressed Nyasha opened up to The Herald following the shooting incident that left the Gweru community dumbfounded and the nation in shock.

Except in motion pictures probably, rarely do shooting victims live to tell their stories. Victims begrudgingly die leaving it to eyewitnesses and rumour-mongers to narrate the gory details of the gunshots, eerie sounds of death’s approach and other tremulous noises.

Nonetheless, the 31-year-old Nyasha Nharingo recently survived despite being shot at close range by her husband, Peter Dube (35), over infidelity claims.

Although Nyasha and her sister Nyaradzo (34) survived the horrific incident, her supposed boyfriend, Shelton Chinhango and best friend, Gamuchirai Mudungwe (30) died on the spot.

She still relives the scary episode at the hands of her gun-toting husband, who is still at large.

The gunshots, the screams, the tremors, the chaos and the dying that ensued after the raging Dube went berserk on the night of April 24 at the couple’s Bensam Flats residence in Gweru central business district still rings loud in her head.

How she survived the point-blank shooting from the agitated Dube is probably the stuff that motion pictures are made of.

After some roaring gunshot outside the flat, Dube charged at Nyasha who was in their bedroom and roughed her up before shooting her in the face at close range.

In a ghostly voice, and struggling to contain the tears that soaked her eyeballs, Nyasha narrated: “I was hit just under the right eye, then the bullet got into my mouth in the process uprooting one tooth as it found its way out through the neck.

“As I fell to the ground, the bullet pierced into my hand through the shoulder.”

She is lucky to be alive by all standards!

And Dube, wherever he is, could be frothing and wondering how this could have been.

Nyasha was discharged from hospital early this week, but she could not go home. This writer had to track her down to where she is recuperating.

She is certainly a tormented soul, but thanks be to God that she was granted another lifeline, for in a manner of speaking she ‘died’ on April 24.

Admitting that Dube was no saint, Nyasha least expected such violent behaviour from her husband of five years.

From the time they have been living together in a marriage where she is a second wife, Nyasha remembers Dube beating her once, and he subsequently apologised.

She recalled that domestic dispute in which he slapped her, resulting in her making a police report, but later dropped the charges.

However, prior to the fatal shooting incident, the union, as Nyasha recollected, had lost its rosy tinge.

“We have been having challenges and misunderstandings to the point that I had approached the police for a protection order. I was even planning to go back to my parents’ home for a while,” she said, sobbing. “Unfortunately, all this happened and people lost lives. It’s traumatising.”

Nyasha said on the dark day, lives could have been saved had the police assisted them to cool down tempers.

“We had gone to Masvingo on the fateful day to collect my sister Nyaradzo’s passport. She had three days of stay in the country. She was supposed to return to South Africa where she is based the following day.

“I communicated this to my husband, and he sanctioned the trip. He even gave me one of his cars from the car sale. We later realised that it was not registered, so we could not use it to travel,” revealed Nyasha.

She said she communicated to her husband that they could not use an unregistered vehicle, and he offered to drive them to Masvingo.

“However, he later changed his mind and said he wanted to attend a friend’s funeral. So, we were then stuck. That is when I reached out to my friend, Gamuchirai.

“Gamu then came with Shelton, who was driving a Toyota Hiace, and we drove to Masvingo,” said Nyasha admitting that she came to know of Chinhango through Gamu.

As they were driving from Masvingo, she received calls from Dube who asked why they were still away from home at night. She immediately sensed that everything was not well.

“When we arrived home, we discovered that he had locked himself inside. We tried to reason with him, calling and knocking at the doors.

“He had the kids inside, but he insisted that we should go back where we had been.  I then went to the police and reported the matter. We brought two police officers, but he would not open the door,” narrated Nyasha.

She then called her co-wife, who got to the apartment, along with Dube’s brother.

“He usually respects the first wife. Also, after all efforts failed, I called her and she came together with his little brother, Advance. That is when he opened the door.

“He went straight down the staircases, and I heard two gunshots. He came back into the house, and shot me at close range. That is when I lost consciousness, only to see myself on a hospital bed the following morning,” she said.

Nyasha still has the bullet lodged in her shoulder.

“I had a scan, and the doctors said they will have to operate me to remove the bullet,” she revealed.

Meanwhile, Nyasha’s father, Mr Ishmael Nharingo said he thanked God that both his daughters survived the attack.

He said he was accommodating Dube’s two children at his home, but was still not sure what he had in mind wherever he is hiding.

However, he decided to find a secret place for her daughters as they were still                                                                                       in fear.

“Nyaradzo is still in hospital, but Nyasha is out. I could not accommodate her here because I don’t even know what the husband is planning while in hiding. What I have here are his children. What can I do? I have to keep them,” he said.

Dube and Nyasha have two children, a three-year-old boy and a toddler.