A 40-year-old Zimbabwean man identified as Gift Saungweme lost his life after being pushed by Tawanda Chirenje out of a fourth-floor window at Matida Hostel in Sakubvan as they were wrestling by the window.
The fight ensued after 25-year-old Tawanda caught Saungweme in a compromising position with his estranged wife, Phillipa Dariyani who is also 25.
Chirenje reportedly assaulted Dariyani with the flat side of a machete and then turned on Saungweme, leading to a scuffle that ended with him falling from the fourth-floor window.
Manicaland provincial police spokesperson Inspector Nobert Muzondo confirmed that the police are treating the matter as a murder incident.
Friends of the victim and Dariyani who is also a prostitute, revealed that the married woman had offered her services to Saungweme as a lady of the night.
It was during this time that Chirenje caught them red-handed.
Shallon Maisera in whose apartment the two lovebirds were caught red-handed, told Manica Post: ‘I was shocked to find Chirenje inside my apartment with the lovebirds.
Dariyani was crying and begging for Chirenje to forgive her. I tried to stop him, but he pushed and locked me outside.
‘She added that Dariyani was assaulted all over her body with the machete. Dariyani’s friend, Memory Chaipa, said the relationship between Chirenje and Dariyani was strained due to his violent nature.
‘Chirenje is negligent and violent, which is why Dariyani joined us in sex work. She wanted to take care of her five children, but Chirenje would not understand this. He has one child with her but does not look after that child,’ Chaipa said.
Police are now on the hunt for Chirenje, who disappeared shortly after Saungweme’s fall from the building.
Muzondo said: ‘As the police, we urge people not to take the law into their own hands and not to use violence when such matters arise.
‘Eyewitnesses also told the publication that the Saungweme family had been at the scene to conduct some rituals.
‘Saungweme’s mother reportedly ordered her dead son to carry out a revenge on those that caused his death. She took some blood-stained soil from where he fell and conducted some rituals.
The mother’s behaviour frightened residents, and she threatened that the whole Matida Hostel would be uninhabitable due to her son’s ghost.
