News / Africa
Robbers kills woman with a shawl, rapes two cousins
21 Jun 2015 at 08:54hrs | Views
Police in Botswana have launched an extensive manhunt for two dangerous robbers who murdered a woman and raped two others on Friday night in Chadibe.
Street vendor Winnet Chirunga (40) was attacked by two armed robbers at her rented house in Chadibe while in the company of her two cousins who were visiting from Zimbabwe.
The Voice reported that the deceased's brother Amos Chirunga (48) said his sister died in vain as she only had P20 when she knocked off from the taxi rank.
"She used that P20 to buy a litre of coke for her kids," said the distraught brother.
The usually bubbly Chirunga who was a popular figure at the Francistown taxi rank breathed her last after the robbers who forcibly entered the house at 3am smothered her to death using her own shawl.
All the three ladies were sleeping in the same room and Chirunga's visiting friends were ordered to cover themselves up with blankets while the armed robbers continued to strangle their host whilst demanding money.
A driver at Tati Nickel Mine, Chirunga said he has since applied for leave to recuperate from the trauma of his sister's tragic death
Winnet's son John Chirunga (23) who was among the first to see her body struggled to hold back tears.
"I went in to the room and saw her head tilted to one side. I immediately knew that she was dead," he said.
Two Zimbabwean women (names withheld) who witnessed the entire ordeal were still shaken when The Voice paid them a visit on Tuesday morning.
Speaking after attending a counselling session in Francistown, one of the traumatised women spoke of how they didn't hear a sound until they were rudely woken up by one of the robbers demanding money while his knife wielding partner manned the door.
"The one who wanted money started strangling Winnet until I could hear her gasping for breath but there was no mercy from her assailant," the woman said.
Source - Online
