The Sunday Mail
BUSINESS recently ground to a halt at the Mutare Civil Magistrates’ Court after a woman, Stella Mawoneke, who claimed to be possessed by the spirit of her husband’s late cousin Winmore Gore, refused to enter court premises, arguing their case had to be heard before a traditional court.
Matters came to a head when Senzeni Gore applied for a protection order against her brother Clive Gore. However, Stella — Clive’s wife — was reportedly possessed by Winmore’s spirit and claimed he was killed by Senzeni through food poisoning in 1993.
“I will not appear before this court because I am waiting for the appeasement of my spirit. Senzeni promised to appease my spirit. Why then are we here? I want the matter to be referred back to the village head’s court. Why did you kill me?” Winmore’s spirit allegedly asked.
“She knows that I only want to be appeased. She gave me poisoned sadza, which I ate and died. She knows her sins. You can ask her and she will acknowledge that. Take me home so that we can brew the appeasement beer. I want Senzeni here; she is the one who killed me.”
Senzeni, who is said to have teamed up with her parents to kill Winmore, is understood to be reluctant to appease the spirit, which is wreaking havoc in the Gore family.
It is rumoured that Senzeni’s parents, who passed away in 2015, wanted their daughter to be the eldest in the family lineage.
Before their death, they allegedly confessed to the heinous crime and told their children about the need to appease Winmore’s spirit.
Senzeni’s brother, Clive, said before the death of his parents, they told him about the appeasement issue, as Winmore’s spirit was haunting the family.
“My parents told me that they connived with my sister (Senzeni) to kill our cousin over succession disputes. They said they had failed to appease the spirit, so the baton was passed on to us to make amends. They said if we fail to do something, we will suffer dearly. We will never be prosperous in our lives as the spirit will always hinder our progress,” said Clive.
The problem, he said, became worse when Senzeni took Mawoneke’s picture and tried to use it to appease Winmore’s avenging spirit.
“Senzeni asked for a picture from Mawoneke and she was given two. She has been using one of them for rituals. She tried to appease Winmore’s spirit by making Mawoneke his wife.
“Mawoneke developed a strange ailment and we have been hopping from one spiritual healer to the other, with no solution to her ailment. When we heard about the pictures, Senzeni surrendered one of them. She is still holding on to the other one, and this is causing havoc in the family.
“We tried to hide the issue from our in-laws, as it means we have to compensate them for their daughter’s suffering as well. Her condition continued deteriorating and we were forced to tell her parents what was happening. We were summoned to the community court.”
He said last month, Senzeni admitted killing Winmore with the help of her parents, and promised to appease the spirit in three months.
“She admitted killing our cousin before the village head. She admitted trying to appease the spirit by giving it a wife (Mawoneke) . . .
“Senzeni promised to brew beer as part of the appeasement process. She promised to complete the appeasement process by August when she is financially stable,” added Clive.
He also said when the protection order papers were served on him on June 9, Mawoneke got possessed and removed her clothes in the presence of police officers, stating that the matter should never be brought before the civil court.
“Mawoneke said she wanted to show the police officers that the matter at hand was too big for the civil court to handle. However, Winmore’s spirit understands me. Whenever Mawoneke gets possessed, I am always there to cool the spirit down. Senzeni’s shenanigans should be laid bare and she should suffer the humiliation for her deeds,” he said.
Clive also said the protection order application against him is a way of concealing Senzeni’s sins. However, Clive was late for the court hearing and the protection order was granted in default by a Mutare magistrate.
Senzeni refused to comment on the matter, saying it was useless to do so as people already have negative perceptions about her.
“What is the use of responding to your questions? You already have your perceptions, but that is not what happened,” she said before walking away. — Manica Post
