A caretaker returning from town with police found four Midlands State University students locked in a room with the body of their friend, 25-year-old Lisedi Nkomo, after she was shot at her boarding house in Senga, in Gweru.
Nkomo, a fourth-year Psychology student and mother of an infant boy, died on Thursday, October 8, at a house in KMP, where other students were held inside after a gunman threatened them and took their mobile phones. Police are searching for Godknows Muleya, identified by the Zimbabwe Republic Police as Nkomo’s former husband and the man suspected of shooting her.
National police spokesperson Commissioner Paul Nyathi said Muleya arrived at the boarding house at about 3pm. A misunderstanding arose around two-and-a-half hours later. Police said Nkomo was shot once in the forehead with a pistol, and that other students were threatened after they ran from their rooms when they heard the gunshot.
“The suspect then shot the now deceased once on the forehead using an unknown pistol,” Nyathi said.
The shooting took place at about 5.30pm at Number 1082, Senga KMP. Nyathi described the scene and the items recovered:
“Lisedi’s body was found face upwards in a pool of blood in her room. A 6.25mm cartridge, a broken Itel mobile phone and a Samsung Galaxy A05s were recovered,” said Comm Nyathi.
The most immediate account of the hours after the shooting came from caretaker Blessing Nkomo, who had gone into town to collect a mattress. She said one of the children staying at the property called her and asked whether she was safe and in her room.
“I was in town when a child who stays here called and asked me whether I was safe and if I was in my room. I told her that I was not at home,” she said.
Blessing told the child to check the rooms. The child found doors open and a man in a hooded jacket moving around the property. When students went into the passage to find out what was happening, the man allegedly threatened to shoot them.
“He took their phones and ordered them to get inside. Four of the students were forced into one room, the same room where my tenant was shot. He locked them inside and threw their phones into a bathtub,” said Nkomo.
The caretaker said the report that the students’ phones had been thrown away convinced her the situation was dangerous. She abandoned the plan to collect the mattress and sought help with her husband. Her account said the phones were thrown into a bathtub; the police account said they were thrown into a toilet chamber.
“When I heard that the phones had been thrown into the bathtub, I told my husband that we should forget about the mattress and get help because I feared for the students.”
The couple first sought police assistance. They later contacted a Criminal Investigations Department team travelling to Shurugwi after officers at a roadblock connected them with the detectives. Blessing returned to the property with two officers, but the keys were locked inside and the students were still calling for help.
“My girls were crying and shouting, ‘Auntie, things are not good here! Open for us!’ They then told me that one of them was dead,” she said.
The students feared the armed man might still be inside the property. Police asked Blessing to find a crowbar so they could force open the door. The four students were eventually freed. Their friend was dead.
Blessing said she had seen a visitor at the property before leaving for town. She noticed the man wearing blue and a grey or dark-silver vehicle parked on the grass, but did not record its registration number. At the time, she assumed he was a relative or someone visiting one of the students.
“I saw a man who was dressed in blue and greeted him as I was preparing to leave for town. I assumed he was a relative or someone visiting a student, as parents and relatives sometimes come to check on their children,” she said.
Students later told her the visitor had been there about two weeks earlier and had tried to reconcile with Lisedi. A friend of Nkomo’s reportedly recognised the man as someone who had previously lived nearby and had asked Nkomo to rekindle their relationship.
Some students had been living at the property since February, Blessing said. Nkomo moved in on August 2, at the start of the semester. The infant boy she left behind is staying with his paternal grandmother, according to the caretaker. He is about eight months old, although Blessing described him as eight or nine months.
A lengthy Facebook message attributed to Muleya appeared after the shooting. In it, the writer spoke about the relationship, family disagreements, a previous marriage to a woman identified as Kimberly, and the couple’s son, Jordan Angels Muleya. The message said the writer had tried to gain acceptance from Nkomo’s family and had eventually decided to end his previous relationship so Nkomo would feel secure about their future.
“I genuinely loved Lesedi Nkomo. The love I had for her was real. We tried, we fought for our relationship, and we made promises to each other,” he wrote.
The post also recalled the birth of their son and described it as a treasured memory.
“I will never regret the fact that we have a son together, because Jordan will always be a blessing in my life,” he wrote.
The writer expressed regret and asked both families for forgiveness.
“Loved. I tried. I made mistakes. I am grieving. But above all, I am human, and I am trusting God to give me strength through this pain,” he wrote.
The message included a further passage about the killing and the writer’s fear and remorse:
“Death is the enemy, but because of what I did, I will face whatever comes my way without fear. I feel that I deserve thus for Lesedi’s life, and in my heart, I believe I deserve much worse than this. The pain and regret I carry are beyond words. I cannot change what has happened, no matter how much I wish I could. All I can do now is pray for God’s mercy, ask for forgiveness, and trust Him to judge me according to His will. May the Lord comfort everyone affected by this tragedy, and may Lasedi’s life never be forgotten.”I am scared, but at this very moment, I am on my knees in prayer, asking the Lord for mercy and strength. To everyone who can hear my cry, please remember me in your prayers. May the Lord have mercy on my soul and accept me into His presence according to His will.
“I know that my name may go down in history associated with what happened, and I can only pray that the Lord knows my heart and understands the pain, fear, and struggles that I have carried. If there is another life beyond this one, my prayer is that things will be better for both of us – that there will be peace, healing, and a happiness that perhaps we could not find in this life. May God have the final word over my life and my story.”I don’t have the answers why things ended this way. I’m really sorry,” Muleya wrote on his Facebook wall.
The police have launched a manhunt for Muleya and appealed to anyone with information that could help locate him to contact the nearest police station. Nyathi urged people to resolve disputes peacefully and respect human life.
Gender activist Locadia Mavhudzi said the killing had left a young child and family facing profound loss.
“A young woman has lost her life, an eight-month-old baby has been left without a mother, and a family has been plunged into grief,” she said.
Mavhudzi said violence between intimate partners should not be dismissed as a private matter or treated as an acceptable response to a relationship breakdown.
“No relationship is worth a human life. Love does not justify control, threats, intimidation or violence,” she said.
She urged people experiencing relationship difficulties to seek counselling and support. She also called for trauma-informed counselling and safe spaces for the four students who were locked in a room with their friend’s body.
“GBV is not merely a family matter; it is a societal crisis that destroys lives, traumatises communities and leaves children with lifelong emotional scars,” she said.
The Gweru killing comes amid other fatal or near-fatal shootings involving couples in Zimbabwe this year. On August 16, police officer Sergeant Portia Dzanwa, 36, was shot dead in Hopley, Harare. The Zimbabwe Republic Police said her husband, Pharaoh Dombodzvuku, 52, allegedly shot her with a pistol and then shot himself with the same weapon. He was taken to hospital in critical condition under police guard.
In April, a shooting at a home in Glen Lorne, Harare, left Nelisa Madzinga injured and her husband, Givemore Tawanda Madzinga, dead. Their four children were at home when the shooting occurred. The earlier cases had different circumstances, but each left families and children dealing with the aftermath of violence between partners.
Zimbabwe-specific figures underline the scale of violence beyond any one case. UN Women says data from the 2019 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey found that 39% of women reported physical abuse since the age of 15, while 12% of women aged 15 to 49 had experienced sexual violence. Intimate-partner violence is the most common form of violence against women in the country, the agency says.
The consequences of Nkomo’s death reach beyond the room where she was shot. An infant will grow up without his mother, relatives have lost a daughter, and four students who went to investigate a gunshot were left trapped beside their friend until help arrived. Police continue to search for Muleya as investigators work through the circumstances of the shooting.