Online Reporter
Nyore Madzianike
Bridget Makaza, who shot and killed her husband and Kurai Coaches bus owner, MacCloud Zvavaviri Mapanga, for marrying another wife sometime in 2018 before fleeing the country, will know her fate next month when the High Court passes judgment in her case.
Justice Emilia Muchawa is set to decide on whether or not Makaza is guilty of killing her husband when she makes a judgment on June 24, 2025.
Makaza is charged with murder.
Through her lawyer, Mr Oscar Gasva, Makaza denied the charges, saying the shot that struck her husband was discharged during a scuffle.
She told the court that she was a victim of mental and physical abuse at the hands of the late transporter since they met in 2008.
Makaza claimed that Mapanga lied to her about being single, only for her to discover that he was married with two other wives at her lobola ceremony in January 2010.
“This shocked and angered her to the extent that she entered into a depression,” she told the court.
After the lobola payment, Makaza claimed that she did not immediately move in with Mapanga as she was still pursuing her studies at Marondera School of Nursing.
She claimed that she paid a surprise visit to Mapanga at his residence in August 2010 and caught him with another woman in bed.
“This event marked the genesis of the brutal physical abuse which the accused experienced from the now deceased, as she was assaulted with slaps, fists and kicks with booted feet.
This physical assault led to the accused suffering a miscarriage,” she said. Makaza told the court that she started suffering from depression until she moved to stay with Mapanga in December 2010.
She claimed that she later fell pregnant again in January 2011 and it was during the course of this pregnancy that she discovered that she was Mapanga’s sixth wife.
“The accused felt betrayed and trapped by the deceased.
This revelation took a severe toll on her mental well-being and physical being,” she claimed.
Makaza also told the court that it was also when she discovered that Mapanga was HIV positive.
She said her late husband had never told her about that.
“This discovery brought severe mental anguish to the accused. She was subsequently tested and discovered that she was HIV negative,” she said.
Makaza told the court that Mapanga would refuse to wear protection during sexual intercourse, which forced her to refuse being intimate with him.
“The now deceased would then force himself on the accused, thus raping her without any protection.
This led to the accused falling pregnant again and to the birth of their second child in 2014,” she claimed.
She also claimed that whilst she was battling to come to terms with her situation, she then discovered that Mapanga was now married to two other women after her.
“ . . . this caused more depression for her,” she said.
“Another factor that aggravated an already bad situation, thus leading to the tipping of the normal balance of her mind, was the fact that when wife number eight (Natalie Mtetwa) fell sick, it was the accused who was accused of bewitching her and that she possessed goblins and practised juju which was causing the illness of wife number eight.
