The Sunday Mail
Noah Pito – Extra Correspondent
Deliberate ingestion of poisonous chemicals, hanging oneself from a tree and throwing one’s self in front of a speeding vehicle have over the years become some of the most common ways of taking one’s life.
Unfortunately, someone seems to have forgotten to pass on the memo to one South African-based Magunje man, who recently cut his throat with a kitchen knife in front of the police and villagers.
Villagers of Chief Nematombo’s area are still to come to terms with this horrific incident.
Edson Tadzimirwa (22) of Muchidzagora village committed suicide after he had earlier on killed his wife, Mercy Katemanyoka (18) with a knife, allegedly over adultery claims.
It is believed that upon arrival in Chinhoyi, from South Africa where he worked as a farm labourer, Edson sent a message to his wife who had visited her mother in the same town, informing her that he was at the bus rank waiting for her.
When an unsuspecting Mercy went to meet her husband, Edson is alleged to have lured her to a hidden spot near Hunyani River where he stabbed her to death.
Edison’s brother Ever, who is believed to have been the last to talk to him before killing himself, gave a detailed account of what he said had led his brother into murder and then subsequent suicide.
Below is Ever’s firsthand account of the tragic events:
“Soon after stabbing his wife in Chinhoyi, he phoned me to wait for him at Magunje Growth Point.
“I thought all was well and probably he wanted assistance in ferrying some groceries and goods he had brought with him from South Africa.
“I also thought he was coming with his wife and child who had visited his mother in-law in Chinhoyi,” said Ever.
“Upon arrival at Magunje, I noticed that Edson was a bit nervous and stressed out. He only had his small satchel strapped on his shoulder, and although he bought some two scuds (opaque beer) he only took a single sip of the beer and that was it.
‘I asked him if all was well and he said he had stabbed his troublesome wife more than eight times in the chest, ribs and back. He said he had committed the grisly murder at a spot along Hunyani River adjacent to where members of the Johanne Masowe Apostolic Sect conducted their church services.
“While giving his narration, he answered a call from Mercy’s mother and confirmed that he had killed her daughter for reasons that she too knew all too well. He told her that he would, however, also kill himself within hours.
“As we travelled home, he started telling me weird stories about how his mother-in-law had literally ‘killed’ him.
“He said each time he had tried to divorce his adulterous wife and switch to other women, including those in South Africa, he would fall sick and his manhood would shrink into a very tiny and useless object.
“He said it was only when he came back to Mercy that his organ regained its size and sexual potency. He also said he had consulted some sangoma down South who also fingered his mother–in-law.
“Edson also said the mother in-law – a prophetess in Chinhoyi known as Mavis – had at one time even insinuated having used some juju on him after she revealed that none of the two (Edison and Mercy) would survive in the event that either one of them died,” he went on.
According to Ever, it was for the same reason that in February this year Edson took no action against his wife after finding her pregnant following his long stay in South Africa.
Ever said Edison could not summon the courage to terminate their relationship because he knew very well that if ever he divorced her he would never be able to marry and make a family with another woman.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Mercy later had a miscarriage.
Ever continued narrating this story that sounds too graphic to be true.
“When we got home that night we had to sleep on the same bed. But in the middle of the night I woke up to find Edson trying his knife on his throat. I wrestled the knife from him and hid it outside the house.
“The following morning we had a good chat, talking about many issues including his experiences in SA particularly on his failure to go for other women.
“It was just after breakfast that he just stood up and bade me farewell. He begged me to take care of his child, Simbarashe (3), his only child with Mercy now staying with her maternal granny in Chinhoyi.
“He suddenly left the kitchen hut and told me he was about to kill himself, warning me not to follow or risk meeting the same fate.”
At that moment Ever motionlessly watched as his brother sharpened his kitchen knife and left.
While all this happened, the police, from Magunje Station, were on their way to ambush Edson for his earlier actions.
“Upon noticing the police advancing towards him, Edson then started hacking his throat with all his might.
“His white t-shirt turned scarlet red in a short moment as we helplessly watched blood profusely come out of his neck.
“Several villagers from the surrounding area rushed to watch as the melodrama unfolded.
“He even threatened to kill one of the police officers, if any of them tried to disarm him,” said Ever.
Police, for some reason, are believed to have fired two warning shots as they struggled to disarm and arrest him but Edson just continued hacking his throat.
He finally staggered and fell to his death with police quickly rushing him to Magunje Hospital where he was pronounced dead.
While a sombre cloud hung over Katemanyoka village in the Zvipani area of Hurungwe where relatives and friends mourned and buried their daughter Mercy, just 30km away Muchidzagora village was also burying its son Edson whose suicide the grey-haired in the area construed as unnatural and having ostensibly stirred by juju claims.
