The bedroom where Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission Commissioner Martin Muduva was attacked was described by a friend as resembling “an abattoir”, as mourners gathered to bury the 42-year-old academic and engineer in Buhera at the weekend.
Muduva died at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals on Wednesday morning after suffering severe injuries in an axe attack at the couple’s home in Dzivarasekwa Extension. His wife, Lyliosa Chirara who was a nurse at Sally Mugabe Hospital (popularly known as ‘kugomo’), later died after consuming what was believed to be rat poison.
The deaths brought a devastating end to a relationship that began when the pair were high-school sweethearts at Murambinda School. They had been married for about 14 years and had three children. Their funerals, however, were held separately, with Chirara buried quietly at her family home in Njanja, Hwedza, early morning on Saturday and Muduva laid to rest in Buhera on Sunday afternoon.
The decision to separate the burials followed discussions between the two families, who were left grieving while trying to make sense of the events that destroyed both households within hours.
A friend of Muduva told mourners that the scene in the bedroom was so bloody that it was difficult to comprehend what had happened there.
“We are aware of false information surrounding the heinous murder of Commissioner Muduva and issues involving Lyliosa over his decision to marry a second wife. Let us put the record straight,” he said.
The friend said Chirara had been informed of Muduva’s intention to marry Mangwiro and that the union had been conducted according to traditional customs. He said she initially accepted the arrangement before later changing her mind.
“Lyliosa later changed her mind and started not to accept Mangwiro. She then decided to kill her husband. When we got to the bedroom, the situation was like an abattoir – this is inhuman,” the friend said.
He also used the funeral to raise the issue of men who suffer abuse in silence because they are ashamed or afraid to report what is happening in their homes.
“A number of men have been dying silently because they feel shy or fear reporting such cases. Dai arimukadzi akatemwa zvakaitwa Commissioner Muduva, dai vakadzi vangadai vasati vanyarara. But they are quiet and busy posting accusations on social media,” he said.
The account presented at the burial was that Muduva had endured a troubled marriage before the fatal attack. Family member Misheck Muduva said the couple had experienced a long-running misunderstanding, although some of the issues were too sensitive to discuss publicly.
Misheck said he had accompanied Muduva when the commissioner went to Mangwiro’s family to pay lobola. He said Chirara had been officially informed about the second marriage and had initially accepted it after several counselling sessions.
“Lyliosa and Muduva had a misunderstanding for some time and some issues are too sensitive to be disclosed publicly. Among them was Muduva’s decision to marry another wife. Lyliosa accepted, after several counselling sessions, where I represented the Muduva family, and she was with her two sisters.”
He added: “Muduva told us he had given Lyliosa US$2,000, but she neither confirmed nor denied receiving that money as a token for violating their marriage vows.”
Misheck also told mourners that a suicide note believed to have been written by Chirara blamed him for supporting Muduva’s decision to marry another woman and for helping to damage her marriage.
The handwritten note described a relationship marked, in Chirara’s account, by rejection, loneliness and betrayal. She said she had made a vow to Muduva that their marriage would only end in death and claimed that the promise had taken on a literal meaning.
“As I had vowed to Martin that our union would only be ended by death, this is the death that I meant,” Chirara allegedly wrote.
She also said she discovered the second marriage through a social media post about Mangwiro’s roora ceremony, rather than through a direct explanation from her husband.
“He went to secretly marry the woman, he went with his relatives and I only learnt about it when I saw it on a status she posted about the Roora Day,” she wrote.
In another passage, Chirara accused Muduva of changing after obtaining his doctorate and becoming financially successful.
“I’m crying, I’m suffering, murume avekundisema, kundisvipira mate nhasi nekuti ave nemari, akanganwa kwatakabva,” she allegedly wrote.
She then appeared to address Mangwiro directly.
“Now, let Patiece Mangwiro be happy because all she wanted was to destroy my marriage with Martin,” she wrote.
Chirara apologised to her children and said she had wanted to watch them grow. She wrote that the stress she was experiencing had become unbearable and that she believed it would eventually kill her.
“My kids, they don’t know anything, yes, I wanted to see them grow but I would still have died because of stress, sorry, I have failed,” she allegedly wrote.
She also apologised to her relatives and to Muduva’s family.
“To my mothers, I know I have inflicted pain on you where it hurts the most but understand this letter, I have written it with tears streaming down my cheeks,” she wrote.
Her final appeal was for her children to be cared for.
“Chisarai mugarike, please take care of my children,” she allegedly wrote.
The deaths unfolded shortly after midnight on 9 September while the couple were in their bedroom. A misunderstanding developed between them before Chirara allegedly struck Muduva on the head and right hand with an object believed to have been an axe. The injuries were serious and included deep cuts.
After the attack, Chirara reportedly consumed rat poison. A neighbour was alerted and rushed to the home. The couple were taken to a 24-hour medical facility, where Chirara was pronounced dead on admission. Muduva, who was in critical condition, was transferred to Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, where he later died.
The bodies were taken to the hospital mortuary as relatives began making funeral arrangements. At the time, the two families were also confronted by different accounts of what had happened inside the marriage.
Muduva’s mother, Emily, said her son had visited her on Tuesday evening because he was due to take her to a doctor’s appointment the following day. She said she was devastated when she learnt that he had been attacked by his wife.
“My son came to see me on Tuesday evening as he was supposed to take me for a doctor’s appointment on Wednesday. I was rather shocked when I received news that he had been murdered by his wife with an axe because of an extramarital affair. Even if it is true or not, why did she have to axe him like that? She could have confided in relatives or me rather than do what she did.
“Who is going to want to sleep in that room that has been stained by blood? And their children, she did them wrong; who is going to look after them? This is just so painful,” she said.
Chirara’s brother, Bernard, said her family had not known about the reported second marriage. He said relatives were still struggling to understand how his sister, whom he described as soft-spoken, could have become involved in such a violent tragedy.
“Lilyosa was a soft woman, even growing up. They were high school sweethearts since the school days at Murambinda Secondary School. I’m surprised to hear that Martin had married another woman, as we were never told of this as his in-laws.
“Even now, no one is saying anything to us as to what really happened, and culturally, they were supposed to send an emissary to inform us, but still nothing has been said. The information we are getting is from hearsay from the neighbours. This is shocking and heartbreaking, as now these children have been orphaned,” he said last week before the burials.
His comments reflected the distance that had opened between the two families by the time the couple’s bodies were being prepared for burial. Bernard said Chirara’s relatives had not been told directly about the reported marriage, while Muduva’s relatives said they had discussed the matter with her and believed she had accepted it.
The disagreement over what Chirara knew and when she knew it remained at the centre of the mourning ceremonies. None of her family members delivered a graveside speech at Muduva’s burial, while the Muduva family did not attend her burial in Hwedza.
Muduva’s brother, Gift, said the family could not travel to Hwedza because it was preparing for the Buhera funeral.
“We are going to bury them separately. Lilyosa’s burial has already been done in Wedza, and her family did it early in the morning as per their tradition. We could not attend as we were preparing to go to Buhera for Martini’s burial. We hope to go and see where Lilyosa is buried when we return,” he said.
A family friend, Nancy Manuel, said she had often been called to mediate when the couple disagreed. She remembered them as hardworking and humble people who had built their lives together over many years.
“I’m still in shock with my friends’ death. It was not supposed to end like this. We used to comfort each and whenever they had disagreements, I would be called to mediate. They had worked so hard to achieve their goals and were humble, so I’m failing to understand why Lilyiosa decided to end their lives in this horrific manner. Its also sad that their deaths have separated their families till their burials. Mai Ashi’s family woke up as early as 3 am today without telling anyone, collected her body at the funeral parlour and went to Wedza by the time people woke up and were looking for them; we heard they had already buried her. They have now orphaned their three children and who still needed their parents’ love.”
Scores of Buhera residents attended Muduva’s burial, hoping to hear more about the chain of events that led to the deaths. Many were still trying to understand how a couple who had met as teenagers, married and raised three children could reach such a violent end.
Muduva was remembered not only as a husband and father but also as an engineer, a Midlands State University lecturer and a commissioner serving on the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission. His professional life had placed him in public service, while his private life was now being mourned through the fractured accounts of relatives, friends and neighbours.
For the couple’s three children, the tragedy has left the loss of both parents and two families divided over how the final days of the marriage should be understood. Their parents’ separate burials closed a weekend of funerals, but did little to settle the painful questions surrounding the bedroom attack, the reported second marriage and the suicide note that brought the relationship to its final, devastating end.
The story began with two young people meeting at school. It ended with Muduva’s blood covering the bedroom where he slept and Chirara being buried before many relatives had been told where she was being taken. Between those two moments lay a marriage, a family, a private dispute and a tragedy that left no household untouched.