Online Reporter
B-Metro Reporter
A BLOODY trail of killings linked to mentally challenged people is tearing through Zimbabwe’s villages and towns, leaving behind broken families and unanswered questions. Experts warn that keeping psychiatric patients locked away at home without medication or hospital care is not just neglect — it is a death sentence waiting to explode.
The chilling reminder came on 18 August 2025 in Tengwe, Karoi, when Patrick Makufa, a known mental health patient, allegedly turned into a killer. Armed with an axe handle, he fatally bludgeoned his neighbour Constaine Mabheka (55), a four-year-old boy Kunashe Mabheka, and teenager Atilda Mharadze (19). The triple killing, confirmed by police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi, sent shockwaves across Mashonaland West.
“This shows why families must ensure relatives battling mental illness get timely medical help before disaster strikes,” warned Nyathi in a statement.
However, Tengwe is only the latest headline in a bloody catalogue.
On 10 August 2025, villagers in Madlambudzi, Matabeleland South, woke to a massacre when a man suspected to be mentally challenged killed five neighbours in a terrifying spree. Survivors described how he moved from hut to hut, cutting down victims with chilling precision.
Just days earlier in Gokwe South, a 27-year-old man allegedly axed his aunt to death before setting her body on fire.
He too was suspected to be mentally ill.
The pattern is not new. According to a Chronicle report of 19 June 2023, a mentally challenged man from Insuza, Matabeleland North, killed his mother with a log after accusing her of witchcraft. In another case reported by The Herald on 4 March 2021, a mentally unstable Epworth man axed his brother to death in a dispute over food.
Statistics paint a grim picture. Police records published in The Sunday Mail of 15 October 2023 revealed that at least 47 murder cases involving mentally challenged suspects were recorded between 2019 and 2023. Most were in rural communities where psychiatric services are scarce.
Mental health experts say the crisis is worsened by stigma. Families hide mentally ill relatives, lock them in huts, or let them roam untreated because: “they are afraid of what neighbours will say — until tragedy strikes.”
“Failure to take medication or defaulting on treatment is the biggest trigger for violent episodes,” explained Dr Fungai Mutsawashe, a Harare psychiatrist interviewed by The Herald on 21 April 2022. “Antipsychotic treatment stabilises patients, but once they relapse, they can become unpredictable and dangerous both to themselves and others.”
Zimbabwe has only 16 psychiatrists serving a population of 15 million, according to Ministry of Health statistics quoted in The Chronicle of 12 October 2022. This yawning gap leaves thousands untreated, especially in rural areas.
Practical solutions are urgently needed. Experts recommend:
l Regular medication: Families must ensure patients don’t skip prescribed drugs.
l Hospitalisation: Severe cases should be taken to mental health institutions like Ingutsheni in Bulawayo or Ngomahuru in Masvingo.
l Community monitoring: Traditional leaders and neighbours should alert authorities when mentally challenged individuals show violent tendencies.
l Decentralised care: More district hospitals need psychiatric units to reduce pressure on the few existing institutions.
Until then, communities remain under siege. From Madlambudzi to Tengwe, from Gokwe to Epworth, the killings underline one hard truth: untreated mental illness is not just a health problem — it is a national security threat.
As one shaken Madlambudzi villager told B-Metro:
“We knew he was not well, but we never thought he could kill. Now three people are gone. If he had been taken to hospital, maybe they would still be alive.”
The blood on the ground is a warning. Zimbabwe cannot afford to keep ignoring its mentally ill.
