Man kills wife with an axe

Caledonia residents in Harare East were yesterday left horrified after a man killed his wife with an axe and burnt their house before committing suicide following an alleged domestic dispute.

Police chief spokesperson Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity Charamba said she was yet to get the details of what transpired.

Yesterday afternoon, mourners were gathered at the homestead and the two bodies were taken to hospital for post-mortem.

According to family spokesperson Mrs Tambudzai Kamangirai, MacDonald Gava and Patricia Chipiri had been having marital problems

She said the incident occurred at around 3am and she was shocked when she received a call at around 7am informing her about the deaths and the burning.

Mrs Kamangira said Chipiri accused Gava of having an extra- marital affair with a woman from the same neighbourhood.

This did not go well with Gava who then killed her before drinking what is suspected to be poison and setting the house on fire.

"They were having domestic disputes from long back and in some cases I had to intervene to calm them down," said Mrs Kamangira.

The couple left a child and Chipiri was said to be pregnant when she was killed.