Extra-marital affair ends in a bloodbath

AN extra-marital affair between a 34-year-old woman and her domestic worker ended in tragedy after the man brutally axed her to death and then committed suicide at her homestead in Mangwe.

Dereck Ncube, 36, also axed Pretty Moyo, his lover's 12-year-old niece, three times leaving her for dead before taking his life leaving a bloody scene.

The late Loveness Moyo's five-year-old daughter woke up to find her mother's bloody lifeless body and her unconscious cousin.

Relatives told The Chronicle that Ncube, who was employed to herd cattle by Moyo, was bitter after Moyo called time on their relationship.

They said the two were high school sweethearts but parted ways and rekindled their affair after Moyo got married.

Matabeleland South acting police spokesperson Assistant Inspector Nkosilathi Sibanda confirmed the incident which happened on Tuesday morning.

He said police were yet to establish the motive for the bloodbath.

Yesterday, mourners were gathered at Moyo's homestead in Vaka area, awaiting the arrival of Moyo's husband who works in Botswana.

Moyo's sister, Ruth, said her five-year-old niece rushed to her homestead on Tuesday morning and told her that her mother had been "slaughtered."

She said the child, who was carrying her six-month-old baby brother on her back, was hysterical.

"My niece came rushing to my homestead in the morning and she called out my name and told me that her mother and her cousin sister were dead. I was chilled by her tone and behaviour. She said they had been butchered with an axe," said Ruth.

She said she took the baby from the toddler and ran to her elder sister's homestead to tell her the news.

They then proceeded to Moyo's homestead together with relatives and neighbours. The cloying smell of blood, Ruth said, met them at her sister's bedroom hut.

"Her feet were partially blocking the door and we had to push it open. I felt weak in the knees when I saw that my sister had been murdered in her own bedroom hut," she said with tears streaming down her cheeks.

"My sister's lifeless body was just lying there. There was blood everywhere. She was naked and my 12-year-old niece Pretty Moyo was half naked. Pretty couldn't talk. Her eyes were just wide open."

Ruth said her niece raised her hand and they realised she was alive. She was rushed to the United Bulawayo Hospitals where she is admitted in the Intensive Care Unit.

Ruth said her elder sister discovered Ncube's body hanging from the roof of a bedroom hut.

"I couldn't think of a way the situation could've been worse but my elder sister came rushing to tell us Ncube had hanged himself in his bedroom hut," she said.

Ruth said she had heard rumours that her sister was having an affair with her domestic worker but she had always denied the allegations.

She said despite the denial, the affair was known throughout the community.

Ruth said she had warned her sister about Ncube after he started behaving like the man of the house, ordering Moyo around.

Moyo's elder sister, Bekezela, described her sister's death as a tragedy as she had left three children behind, with the eldest being 18. She said Ncube and her family were originally from the same area in Bulilima District.

Bekezela said her sister invited him to come and work for her in Mangwe about two years ago.

The area's village head, Julius Nkomo, described the incident as a terrible tragedy which had left the community shaken.