Danisa Masuku
SLAIN Midlands State University (MSU) student, Lesedi Nkomo, was yesterday laid to rest at Luveve Cemetery in Bulawayo, exactly a week after she was allegedly shot dead by her ex-husband, Godknows Muleya.
Scores of mourners, including relatives, friends, church members and community residents, gathered at her family home in Pumula South to bid farewell to the young woman whose life was cut short as she pursued her Honours Degree in Psychology.
Nkomo was a Level Four, First Semester student at MSU.
Her friend, Tholakele Sibanda, described her as a humble and caring person who was always willing to help others.
“She was a humble person and very lovely. Anyone who needed advice or financial assistance could approach her for help. She has left a big void and our stay at school will never be the same,” said Sibanda.
A family member, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Nkomo and Muleya had a troubled relationship that eventually ended with him taking her back to her parents.
“Their love affair was bad. At the height of it, Muleya and his emissaries had to bring her back to her parents,” said the relative.
The family member said Nkomo’s relatives later refunded Muleya US$700 paid during traditional marriage proceedings.
“We had to give him (Muleya) back his money, US$700, for ukangaziwe (money paid as part of the bride-price negotiations to introduce the couple to the in-laws),” said the relative.
The family also dismissed social media claims that Muleya had been paying Nkomo’s university fees.
“Lesedi’s parents were the ones who were paying her school fees, not the untruthful information that is being peddled on social media,” said the relative.
Meanwhile, Muleya is expected to be buried at his rural home in Beitbridge, Matabeleland South.
Muleya, 30, a director of a Bulawayo-based security company, was found dead last Saturday with a gunshot wound to the forehead. Police reportedly recovered a pistol, a magazine containing three rounds and a spent cartridge at the scene.
Nkomo was allegedly shot in the forehead at about 5.30pm on Thursday after Muleya visited her boarding house in Senga. The shooting reportedly followed a misunderstanding between the two, who had a child together.
Other students at the boarding house allegedly rushed out of their rooms after hearing the gunshot but were threatened by Muleya, who warned that he would shoot them if they intervened.
He allegedly confiscated their mobile phones, threw some into a toilet chamber and locked the students in a room with Nkomo’s body before fleeing in a silver-grey Toyota Wish.
Nkomo was later found lying face upwards in a pool of blood in her room.
Police investigations at the scene led to the recovery of a cartridge, a broken Itel mobile phone and a Samsung Galaxy A05s.
