'Cheating' lover kidnapped

POLICE in Zvishavane are investigating a case of an enraged Mberengwa kombi driver who hijacked two vehicles belonging to his colleagues before allegedly kidnapping his girlfriend after catching her being intimate with a Genesis bus conductor.

Alfred Tasaranago Chihora of Masarira village was said to have been tipped off that his girlfriend Rutendo Zhou had an affair with a bus conductor whose bus plies the Mberengwa route and passes at Jeka Hospital where she works.

Chihora, who is still at large, went to the Mberengwa turn-off along the Zvishavane-Bulawayo Road where he allegedly assaulted a colleague only identified as Reason before hijacking a Toyota Granvia belonging to Timothy Moyo and speeding off in the direction of West Nicholson.

According to police, Chihora drove to a Mberengwa fuel station and asked the attendants to fill the tank before driving off without paying.

He then drove to the Mabika area around 3am and came across the Genesis bus he was looking for. He then blocked its path before budging in.

The bus driver, Justice Shoko, said Chihora found Zhou in a compromising sexual position with the conductor he identified as James Mapfumo at the back seat under a blanket.

Shoko said Chihora apprehended the two and tied them with a rope before frogmarching them out of the bus and pushing them into the water in the nearby dam.

"This guy (Chihora) blocked my way and came aboard before apprehending his girlfriend and James. He then tied the two with a rope and pushed them into the dam, but James managed to escape," said Shoko.

Chihora bundled Zhou into the Toyota Granvia he had earlier hijacked and drove towards Jeka, but the vehicle ran out of fuel. He allegedly hijacked a Toyota Noah belonging to Advice Masarira, whom he also kidnapped.

He drove to Zhou's parents' homestead in Ruvabvu village in Mberengwa South and then gave Masarira his car back upon arrival.

Rutendo's father Julius Zhou said when Chihora arrived at his homestead, he assaulted his daughter and other family members before setting one hut ablaze and then left with her while she was bleeding profusely.

"He came violently assaulting my entire family before setting one of the huts ablaze. He fled with my daughter and threatened that if anyone followed him he would kill Rutendo," said the elderly Zhou in tears.

When police called Zhou's mobile phone with her father later that morning, she told them that she did not know where she was as she was now blind due to being assaulted.

A police official said Chihora told them that he was with Zhou in a cave at a location he refused to disclose and had threatened to kill her before committing suicide.

"Police are doing their best to locate and apprehend Chihora, but the wanted person has threatened to commit murder and suicide, so this is a very sensitive case we are dealing with," said a police official who declined to be named due to police communication protocol.

The police official said they had approached the network operator whose mobile number Zhou uses to help them track her location.

Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko said he had not yet been furnished with the full details of the case, but investigations were continuing.