*Muduva’s second wife says she owes no one an explanation
The woman whose name was drawn into the dispute behind a couple’s tragic death in Dzivarasekwa, Harare, on Wednesday says she has nothing to say — because no comment will bring her husband back.
Patience Mangwiro is mourning the death of her husband, Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission (ZHRC) Commissioner and Midlands State University (MSU) lecturer Martin Muduva, at his Harare home. Patience also works at MSU, where Muduva lectured.
Muduva was struck three times on the head. His first wife, Lyliosa Chirara, is suspected of attacking him before taking poison and killing herself.
The alleged murder-suicide happened just days after Muduva paid roora for Patience, finally sealing a five-year romance that had already produced a child.
When H-Metro contacted Patience on Thursday, she made it clear she did not want to discuss the case.
“Murikudei, ndati murikudei, will my comment bring back Martin?” she said. “Come on, not everything is content.”
More details have since emerged about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of Muduva and his first wife, Lyliosa Chirara, a 43-year-old nurse based at Ruwa Rehabilitation Centre.
Some believe Lyliosa had been planning the attack for a while, pointing to her buying a new axe at Mbare Musika, which investigators say appeared to have been sharpened beforehand.
She is also said to have bought a sachet of rat poison, which she allegedly mixed with rodenticide before the attack, then drank shortly afterwards.
The Muduvas’ three minor children are now without a parent.
Community members who responded to the scene initially thought the house had been targeted by armed robbers.
One resident said neighbours rushed to the property armed, only to discover later that the academic and his wife were the ones involved.
“The wife locked the bedroom door after killing her husband, then took a mixture of rat poison, presumably to make sure neither of them survived,” the resident said. “We had to break the locking system to get into the bedroom, then rushed both of them to the clinic.”
