The Sunday Mail
Sharon Munjenjema
Could it be supernatural or mere structural faults?
Last year, part of a two roomed house in Uzumba, Murewa in Mashonaland East collapsed in broad daylight.
The house belonged to Rui Kulambandewo (48), a security officer and member of the African Apostolic Church led by Apostle Paul Mwazha.
A fortnight ago, the remaining room caved in killing the security officer’s wife, son, daughter and granddaughter.
According to the police, the bodies of Fadzisayi Chikuyeni (51) her children Ngonidzashe (4), Precious (2) and grandchild Rutendo Madade (7) were discovered by neighbours under a pile of bricks and corrugated iron sheets
Three children- Alois (8), Blessing (14) and Rachel (10) – who were also in the house sustained injuries.
Four days after the tragic deaths, more disaster struck.
Kulambandewo’s two-roomed cottage in Nyatsime, Chitungwiza, saw one of its rooms falling.
When the first structure collapsed last year, Kulambandewo’s fourth born — Chipo — had just evacuated the building.
When the Nyatsime room fell, Chipo had just left to sleep at her sisters’ place in the same neighbourhood. The sister is mother to the girl who died in the Uzumba tragedy.
Part of the Nyatsime house exhibits mounds of mud and broken common bricks with a small wall still standing on one side. A visit to the house last week by The Sunday Mail saw two men working feverishly in the remaining room, applying plaster to solidify the structure.
They toiled in haste, pausing briefly to look at the cumulonimbus clouds above them that threatened to unleash a heavy downpour.
One of the men, Kulambandewo (48), paused briefly for an interview.
He visibly struggled to suppress emotions over the death of his family members as he narrated his unfortunate situation.
“I am devastated. I am struggling to come to terms with the deaths and all what is happening,” said Kulambandewo.
“On Friday, the 9th of February, I left my rural homestead in Chidawa Village, Uzumba district, after bidding farewell to my wife, children and grandchildren. Upon arrival here in Chitungwiza, I phoned my wife to let her know I had travelled safely. That was the last time I heard her voice. What was to follow was a death message.”
While still nursing the pain of burying four family members at once, the widower did not know life was yet to teach him the true meaning of the adage “it never rains but it pours”.
Kulambandewo was to get a message that part of his house in Nyatsime had also collapsed.
A neighbour to the victims in Nyatsime, who chose to be identified only as Kasvewo, said he noticed something unusual the morning after the structure collapsed. “When I went close to the house, its door seemed to have been dislodged and ‘thrown’ some metres away and it was adjacent to its frame. It appears there was a strong force involved.”
Mr Fondo Museruswa, who lives near the Kulambandewo homestead in Uzumba, believes the rural home “just collapsed because its structure was weak”.
“The house was built using mud hence it could have given in to the rains.” Chidawa village head Mr Joseph Chidawa believes Kulambandewo should perform some traditional rites.
“He is in possession of some cattle belonging to his mother. In our culture these cattle should be given to his maternal uncles.”
The president of Zimbabwe National Traditional Healers Association, Mr George Kandiero, said such occurrences were not coincidences.
Kulambandewo also finds the occurrences strange.
“I think someone is using black magic on my family. I am a hard worker who owns some properties and that usually breeds enemies,” he concluded.
