Man rapes, beheads wife for ending relationship, tries to cut own throat

A BINGA gold panner is battling for life in hospital with a deep cut on the neck following a failed suicide attempt in which he tried to cut his own throat after beheading his wife who had ended their relationship.

Lastmore Ngwenya (24) and Muchite Munkuli (23) both of Chamateme village under Chief Siachilaba had been married for an undisclosed period before Munkuli fell sick in October last year.

She consulted a self-proclaimed prophet who told her she had been bewitched by her husband’s father.

Munkuli left her matrimonial home to live with her parents.

The case involving the couple’s separation was heard by Chief Siachilaba on Christmas Eve.

A consensus for the pair to separate and share property was reached at the chief’s court but Ngwenya, who could not stomach the development, went on to kill Munkuli on Christmas Day.

It is suspected that he raped her before killing her because the body had semen.

Ngwenya, a gold panner in Filabusi’s Mathiya Dam area in Matabeleland South, is admitted at Binga District Hospital where he is reportedly unconscious.

Binga magistrate Urgent Vundla remanded him to next week Friday on his hospital bed for a charge of murder and rape.

According to prosecutors, Ngwenya disappeared after killing his wife and was found unconscious in his bedroom hut the following day with a deep cut on the neck.

Details of the case are that Munkuli got sick in October last year and visited a self-proclaimed prophet who told her that Ngwenya’s father had bewitched her.

She confronted her husband resulting in a misunderstanding which saw her abandon her matrimonial home.

Village head Amos Mungombe intervened and referred the case to Chief Siachialaba after failing to reconcile the couple.

Chief Siachilaba summoned the two’s families and on December 24, ruled that the marriage was no longer safe and a consensus was reached for the couple to separate and share property.

“The two parties appeared before Chief Siachilaba on December 24 and a consensus was reached for the couple to separate and share property. After the court Munkuli left with her cousin Eveline Muleya going to a Zion Church service in the area while Ngwenya left to an unknown destination. Munkuli spent the night at Muleya’s place of residence after church and woke up in the morning to go home using a small footpath,” said prosecutor Quiet Dube.

Munkuli’s lifeless bloodstained body was found by her sister around 8am and had a deep cut on the throat, both palms and chin.

Her undergarment was torn and removed to knee level while there was semen on her privates suggesting her attacker may have raped her before the murder.

The body was taken to Bulawayo for postmortem.

Ngwenya was later found with a big cut on his neck showing he attempted to commit suicide using an unknown sharp object while his shirt was soaked in blood.

-New Zimbabwe