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“There is a history of psychopathic disorder in my family; it particularly manifested in my father, so this could be a hereditary condition.”
Veronica Gwaze
Emelda Marizani killed her four kids in the most grisliest, dastardly and goriest way imaginable on the fateful afternoon of November 11, 2020 at their house in Highview Suburb, Chivhu.
In an inexplicable fit of rage, the then 29-year-old, who reportedly had just had a marital dispute with her husband Lameck Brande, first laced four cups with rat poison and forced her children – girls aged nine, five, three and one – to drink the concoction.
She then put them to bed before slitting their throats with a knife.
She subsequently set the house on fire and fled the scene.
Marizani later surrendered herself to the police.
On March 24 this year, High Court judge Justice Munamato Mutevedzi convicted and sentenced Marizani to four life sentences.
She becomes the first woman in Zimbabwe to be handed such a heavy sentence.
Although the case has since been closed, questions are still being asked on what could have triggered her to sink to such unconsionable levels of depravity.
‘Savage and brutal’
Although she tried to plead insanity, Dr Patrick Mhaka, who examined her, told the court that the “killer mum” could not have been mentally disturbed at the material time she committed the offence.
Delivering his four-hour-long judgement, Justice Mutevedzi was particularly scathing.
“Admittedly, a mother can kill her child, but to kill four of them, one after another in such cold-blooded manner, typifies a woman who had a determined resolve to achieve her selfish purpose,” he said.
“The murder was committed in aggravated circumstances. It was a mass murder whereby the accused killed the deceased simultaneously over a relative period of time without cooling off …
“She also used multiple fatal methods to kill her victims after she admitted to lacing four cups with poison and instructing her children to drink it. She chose two extreme modus operandi used by murderers …
“Cut-throat method was savage and brutal … Accused is a highly dangerous criminal. The court will show little to no mercy to a mother who butchers her own children. She does not deserve a second chance; she also does not deserve to go back to society,” Justice Mutevedzi ruled, adding that she callously murdered the kids “in her moronic belief that by doing so she would get even with her husband and his mistresses”.
Murdering out of love
In her testimony in court, Marizani bizarrely claimed she had murdered her children “out of love”.
As someone who had decided to leave her husband, she couldn’t imagine her kids one day being raised by an abusive stepmother.
She also claimed that a family history of mental illness, including the constant abuse she received from her husband, seriously took a mental toll on her such that she could not be made answerable to charges of murder on account of diminished responsibility.
Her husband, whom she claimed desperately wanted a son, which she had not managed to provide, was allegedly expecting a baby boy with his “small house”.
“I was perceived as not being good enough for my husband. I felt worthless and a lesser woman because I was constantly reminded that I only had girl children,” said Marizani in her testimony.
Years of emotional, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her husband, she added, had compromised her mental health.
She even alleges that on the morning of the fateful day, her husband had raped her.
“There is a history of psychopathic disorder in my family; it particularly manifested in my father, so this could be a hereditary condition,” said Marizani.
“Mood swings”
Her husband, Lameck Brande, however, later revealed to the court that their marriage was far from blissful, as she had misled him from the beginning into believing she was old enough to get married by showing him her sister’s birth certificate, when, in actual fact, she was a minor.
There was actually a ten-year age difference between the couple.
What always worried him the most was Marizani’s mood swings.
He, however, acknowledged that he was having an affair.
Introvert
One of the family’s neighbours, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Marizani was generally an introvert.
Many people did not actually know her life story.
“It is only now that she has revealed that her mother had abandoned her at birth,” said the neighbour.
“This led to a troubled upbringing where she was passed on from one relative to another.
“She could not go far with her education but secured a job as a maid at a young age and later tried to pursue her education without success, hence the early marriage.
“I also believe that the constant abuse could have resulted in her becoming withdrawn because you could tell that something was not right.”
Trouble childhood
Marizani is Maria Mupini’s only child.
Her parents divorced when she was only five-years-old and her father, who reportedly had anger issues, took up the responsibility of raising her.
However, she was later taken in by her paternal uncle.
As fate would have it, she later met her mother when she was in Form Three.
“We got reunited for the first time when she was in Form Three and established a good relationship, which had to be cut short by her incarceration,” recounted Maria Mupini.
But Marizani’s aunt, Eunice Mutukwa, under whom she spent most of her childhood, indicated that she grew up as a normal child, although she had a stubborn streak.
“At times, she would leave the homestead to go to her grandparents’ place without telling anybody,” said the aunt.
“The accused’s paternal grandmother and uncle (father’s twin brother) are not mentally stable; I suspect that their odd behaviour must have also rubbed off on her.”
Online Reporter