Leonard Ncube and Khosi Fengu Chronicle Reporters
A BINGA man who suffered from a strange illness that made him collapse every 27th day of the month, gruesomely murdered his uncle and later hanged himself on Tuesday.
That was after his uncle had declined to report to a group of tsikamutandas who had fingered him as the source of the illness, police have confirmed.

The incident happened at Bunsiwa Village, Siachilaba in Binga when Chipo Mudenda was told that his long standing illness was caused by his uncle.

It is claimed that Mudenda, who was in his 30s, would collapse and lie unconscious for hours on the 27th day of each month under mysterious circumstances.

After consulting a number of sangomas, he was allegedly told that his uncle Robert Video Munkuli was the cause of his illness.

Mudenda allegedly struck his uncle, believed to be in his 50s, after he refused to accompany him to the tsikamutandas to exonerate himself from the allegations.

He then took his life and his body was found hanging from a tree yesterday morning following the gruesome incident on Tuesday morning.

The Officer Commanding Hwange District Chief Superintendent Ben Antonio confirmed the incident.

“I can confirm that we received such a report of a man who axed his uncle and his body was found hanging later on. We’re still on the ground investigating the matter,” he said.

A relative who declined to be named told Chronicle: “A group of tsikamutandas who came to the area said Mudenda was being bewitched by his uncle and the two have been fighting ever since,” said the relative.

The relative said last month Chief Saba summoned the two and requested that they make peace.

He reportedly referred them to an independent traditional healer in Kamativi.

“Munkuli refused and instead sought a peace order against Mudenda from the Binga Magistrates Court. The two were scheduled to appear in court yesterday (Tuesday) and this hasn’t happened”, said the relative.

Sources in Bunsiwa told Chronicle that Munkuli and Mudenda had been locked in a longstanding dispute since the time Mudenda began suspecting that his uncle was the source of his illness.

“This man had been bewitching his nephew for a long time. When the issue was exposed the family convened and Munkuli admitted that he was the one responsible for his nephew’s condition, but told family members that he got the muti from an inyanga who died long back and it was difficult to reverse the illness,” said the source.

It is said the illness that affected Mudenda would cause him to collapse and start to behave strangely.

“Mudenda was married with children but the kind of life he was now living was sad which might’ve pushed him to commit the offence. He went to a number of inyangas who told him that his uncle was responsible for his illness.

“He would follow his uncle and on the fateful day he met him in the morning and axed him, cutting the neck before he also hanged himself,” added the source.

The two bodies were buried yesterday at their rural home in Bunsiwa.

A relative said an inyanga advised Mudenda to bring his uncle along but he refused until he reported the matter to Chief Saba whose orders were also disobeyed by Munkuli.

Mudenda and his uncle then allegedly exchanged harsh words the night before the fateful attack and suicide.

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