adminTendai Gukutikwa
A Honde Valley woman is nursing injuries sustained after she was stabbed twice with a knife by her sister-in-law over a petty misunderstanding.
Eufresia Zimowe (32) of Chipupuri Village Chief Samanga sustained deep cuts on the stomach and right hand after Joyce Samanga (31) stabbed her with a sharp knife and assaulted her with bare fists.
Samanga denied the attempted murder charges she was facing before Mutare Magistrate Langton Mukwengi and a trial was conducted.
Mr Cuthbert Bhosha prosecuted.
The court heard it through Mr Bhosha that Samanga stabbed the complainant deliberately with the intention of killing her.
“The accused and complainant, whose husbands are brothers, are alleged to have quarrelled over an issue that started as a mere children’s fight.
Samanga claims she cautioned her children who were fighting, to stop the fight. This did not go down well with the sister-in-law who thought the insults were directed at her, not the children.
In her defence she also stated that when Zimowe confronted her, she was peeling some potatoes and so was holding a knife in one of her hands and a potato on the other.
“Zimowe grabbed my neck from the back and tried to suffocate me. Our husbands’ sister saw that I was about to die and he came to grab her. We both fell down and that is how the knife I still had in my hands found its way into her stomach. I did not deliberately stab her Your Worship” Samanga said.
Eufresia however had a different story to tell.
“She called me names and my husband called us both to settle the quarrel.
“When I arrived at her place, she quickly grabbed a knife and dug it deep into my stomach, and removed it only to dig it again onto my right arm.”
Zimowe’s husband, Gift Nyazenga, claimed that his sister hated his wife and was even an accomplice in the attempted murder, a point his wife had omitted.
“My sister grabbed my wife for Samanga to stab her.
“They both had pre-planned it.”
The matter was however postponed to 15 November for sentencing.
Online Reporter