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Pamela Shumba Senior Reporter—
POLICE in Bulawayo have launched a manhunt for a man who fatally axed a housemaid and blew off part of her face with a gun in Hillside suburb. Godfrey Ndlovu, 26, a gardener at the house, stumbled on 63-year-old Esther Nkiwane’s bloodied body at around 8AM on Monday after hearing gunshots and loud noises.

Bulawayo police spokesperson Precious Simango yesterday said: “We received a report of a murder case that occurred in Hillside and investigations are in progress.” Ndlovu told The Chronicle he had just arrived for work from his home in Gumtree when he heard loud noises in the house at about 7.30AM.

“I live here but I was away from Thursday last week until Monday morning. “I arrived at about 7.30AM and as usual I called out to Esther telling her that I had arrived and quickly started doing my work around the yard. She didn’t respond and I thought she was busy in the house,” said Ndlovu.

He said he heard “frightening noises” from the house. “There were gunshots and Esther screamed twice,” said the gardener. He said he rushed towards the house and came to a screeching halt when he heard more gunshots. Ndlovu said he got scared and called neighbours.

“On their way to the house, two workers from a house next door saw a man, dressed in a khaki shirt and trousers, jumping over the precast wall. They said he jumped over security walls of three houses before he disappeared,” said Ndlovu.

When they got to the house, Ndlovu said, it was deathly quiet and there was no answer when they called Esther’s name. “I saw water flowing from the laundry room. We got closer to investigate and I saw the scariest sight of my life,” said Ndlovu. He said Esther’s body was lying in a pool of blood in the dining room.

“There was a cut on her head where she looked like she had been axed. Part of her face seemed to have been blown off, probably by the gun,” said Ndlovu. He said the neighbours called an ambulance and the police. “The ambulance crew declared her dead on arrival and her body was later taken away by the police,” said Ndlovu.

He said the suspect left a gun, a metal weapon and a bottle of cyanide next to Nkiwane’s body. Ndlovu said he could not understand how the killer gained access into the yard as there were three vicious dogs. A neighbour speculated that Nkiwane knew her killer and had let him into the house.

Esther’s brother, Mhlambi Nkiwane, said they travelled from their rural home in Kezi yesterday after receiving the devastating news. “A police officer phoned and asked us to come to Bulawayo immediately but refused to disclose the reason. We then decided to call her employer who delivered the disturbing news,” said Mhlambi.

He said he could not believe his sister was dead and the family was yet to come to grips with the horrific nature of her death. “It’s clear that this person came here with the intention of killing her,” said Mhlambi. A distraught Khethiwe, Esther’s sister, said: “I’m hurting. I really don’t understand why someone would kill a 63-year-old woman. Her husband died years ago and she had no children.”

Esther’s churchmate at the Salvation Army in Makokoba suburb, who declined to be named, said congregants were shocked by her death. “It’s sad. We were together at church on Sunday and she disclosed to the congregation that she was stressed because her mother wasn’t well in Kezi,” she said.