Online Reporter
Fungai Lupande
Mashonaland Central Bureau
AS dusk settles over Guruve, fear dictates the rhythm of life. By 6pm, villages fall silent as families abandon their homesteads and converge at designated “bases.”
The base is a selected house where more than seven families huddle together for the night.
In-laws, children and the elderly gather under one roof, seeking safety in numbers.
No one wants to sleep alone anymore.
While women and children crowd inside, young men and fathers patrol the darkened paths outside, armed with sharpened axes and knives, standing guard until dawn.
It is a haunting routine that has become normal following a wave of brutal murders that have claimed nearly 19 lives since October.
During the day, fear still lingers. People move cautiously, limiting trips to fields, rivers and forests. Firewood remains uncollected, fields unattended. Life has shrunk to survival.
“This is no way to live,” says Mrs Edith Tivasora, her voice heavy with exhaustion. “We stay confined, weapons within reach. We will only have peace when the suspect is arrested.”
She compares the situation to the “keeps” of the liberation struggle, protected villages where communities were forcibly grouped.
“We are sleeping as we did during the liberation struggle,” she says. “Out of fear.”
The tragedy that plunged Guruve into deeper terror occurred on December 14 at Plot 9, Ona Mapeto Farm, where five members of the Zvitsva family were killed in a night attack that has shaken the district.
Those who died are Grace Zvitsva (66), Tendai Zvitsva (40), Loice Chiringaushe (37) and her two young children, Takudzwa Kariva (5) and Tatenda Chirenje (2). Five children survived.
One of them, a seven-year-old, quietly recounted how the night unfolded. They were asleep when Loice shouted that intruders were breaking in. The attackers forced entry through a window, tying the door from outside.
Loice put up a brave fight. As chaos unfolded, the children hid beneath a heap of blankets, frozen in fear.
The minor described the callous act of violence by the three assailants who killed the two-year-old baby for crying and a five-year-old for saying they had stepped on him. Even when help arrived later, the five remained motionless, too traumatised to respond.
“When we finally pulled them out, they clung to us,” said Mr Innocent Chitatura, one of the villagers who responded to the screams. “It was heartbreaking.”
Mr Chitatura recalls hearing cries for help around 9pm, masked by a raging storm.
“I grabbed a torch and went towards the sound. I saw someone jump through a window. Because I was alone, I went back to alert others,” he said. “When we returned, the house was soaked in blood. In the outside kitchen, we found Tendai badly injured.”
Villagers believe some lives could have been saved had help arrived sooner, but fear paralysed the community.
“The deceased did not get help in time because people were scared,” said Mrs Zivanai Chiboora.
“We thank the brave ones who came and saved the remaining children.”
She appealed for the establishment of a police base closer to the villages. “We need armed personnel. Ordinary people are terrified,” she said.
On Thursday last week, two more people, a woman aged 55 and a six-month-old baby were brutally murdered again in Guruve.
Whispers now ripple through the community, with some villagers alleging the killings are linked to a traditional healer, whom they accuse of orchestrating ritual murders.
Villagers claim he fled his farm in Chikokanya village. Police have not confirmed the allegations.
Police have since launched investigations into the case as they launch a manhunt for Anymore Zvitsa (32), believed to be the main suspect behind these murders.
A reward is now being offered to anyone with information that might assist police with information that might lead to his arrest.
Today, Guruve’s villages remain locked in fear. Families sleep crowded together, youths walk the night, and childhood innocence has been violently interrupted. All that the community longs for now is the restoration of safety and the return of normal life.
Until then, nightfall remains the most feared hour.
dyton mupawaenda