YESTERDAY we carried the story of an artisanal miner who allegedly poisoned her four-year-old grandson “in a bid to get rich.”

We reported that she then cut off some flesh from his face and cooked the pieces after mixing them with some herbs she had received from a sangoma.

The tragic incident happened on Tuesday last week in Shurugwi.

Veronica Mudzipuri is alleged to have poisoned Tawananyasha Kadhene for ritual purposes.

Mudzipuri allegedly mixed Tawananyasha’s maheu drink with a pesticide.

The four-year-old died after drinking the laced maheu.

Mudzipuri allegedly then cut flesh from the victim’s cheek and lips, mixed it with some herbs prescribed by a sangoma and cooked it.

Mashonaland West Provincial Police Spokesperson, Inspector Ian Kohwera, confirmed the case.

He said Tadiwanashe’s father told the village head at Fairview Farm in Gadzema, near Chegutu, that he suspected foul play in the death of his son.

Insp Kohwera said the village head advised him to inform the police.

He said when police arrived and inspected the body, they observed the open wound on the right cheek and lip and they suspected foul play leading to the father and the suspect being picked for interviews.

During the interviews, Mudzipuru later admitted to have killed her grandson in a bid to enrich herself.”

He warned members of the public to desist from being influenced to commit crimes by unscrupulous traditional healers in the bid to enrich themselves.

This is not the first time we have reported such a story in which someone killed a member of their family for ritual purposes.

Others have killed people who are not members of their families for the same ritual purposes.

We don’t know why some people still believe that killing someone can end up with them getting rich.

It’s a bizarre way of thinking because there is no documented proof to show that someone actually became rich after killing someone else.

What is documented is that we have people who became rich because they worked very hard.

They were relentless in their pursuit of their goals and on the occasions that they faced some hurdles they did not lose heart.

They kept their focus, even when the going was tough, and they did not let the challenges they faced overwhelm them.

The richest man in this country, Strive Masiyiwa, is a billionaire and he didn’t need to kill someone for ritual purposes for him to become rich.

He didn’t need to kill someone for him to join the billionaire boys’ club.

All that Strive needed was a dream and, as a businessman, he pursued his dream to have a company like Econet Wireless.

He picked the right people to occupy the right positions in his company and Econet Wireless grew into one of the biggest and most profitable companies in this country.

We have farmers who are rich and we have miners who are also very rich.

They didn’t need to kill someone for them to become rich.There is no need for our people to believe that they can get rich by killing other people.

It’s backward and it’s barbaric.

H-metro