Online Reporter
Zvikomborero Parafini
In a disturbing incident, Ms Dorcas Mutengwa and her two minor children are currently battling for their lives in the hospital after being set on fire by her estranged husband, Paul Zuze.
The 29-year-old mother sustained injuries in the attack, which occurred when Zuze allegedly doused her and their children with petrol and ignited their home.
The incident reportedly stems from a history of domestic violence. Last November, during a visit to her home, Ms Mutengwa spurned Zuze’s advances to be intimate with her, prompting him to threaten her with a kitchen knife, demanding to know why she was refusing to be intimate with him.
After the incident, Ms Mutengwa reported Zuze to the police for failure to comply with terms and conditions of a protection order.
Zuze was arrested but later released due to discrepancies between the protection order’s address and the location of the incident.
Following his release, he continued to threaten Ms Mutengwa, claiming he would kill her and their children, accusing her of infidelity with his brother and other men.
On the night of the attack, Ms Mutengwa was asleep in her room with her two children, aged three and seven, when she awoke to find her room engulfed in flames.
The smell of petrol filled the air, and she quickly realised the severity of the situation. In a desperate effort to extinguish the flames, she poured a bucket of water on the fire, but instead, it caused the flames to explode, resulting in severe burns to her body.
Despite her injuries, Ms Mutengwa managed to open the door and rescue her two children, who sustained minor burns.
Neighbours, alerted by the sound of explosions from Ms Mutengwa’s room, rushed to help put out the fire.
They witnessed a man fleeing the scene and getting into a car identified as Zuze’s. Investigations confirmed that petrol had been poured underneath the door before lighting the fire.
Ms Mutengwa suffered burns on her hands, face, back, shoulders and thighs. Her older child suffered burns on his hands and nose, while the younger child had burns on her right ear.
The blaze also destroyed household property including a 32-inch television, a bed, a fridge, kitchen chairs, clothes, blankets and a kitchen unit.
