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Patrick Chitumba, Midlands Bureau Chief
AN illegal gold panner who could not stomach being ditched by his girlfriend petrol-bombed a room she was sleeping in with another man in Gweru in the wee hours of yesterday morning.

The couple suffered severe burns following the attack at around 1AM and has been transferred to Parirenyatwa Hospital in Harare where the two are both battling for life in the Intensive Care Unit.

Garikayi Zvavada (43) of Ascot suburb allegedly armed himself with two home-made petrol bombs that he made using nine litres of petrol.

He broke a window and threw the bombs into a room at a house in Ascot suburb where he suspected his ex-girlfriend, Ms Cynthia Hlabangana, was having sex with an unnamed boyfriend.

Neighbours said they heard him shouting that he was going to kill his “slut” around midnight.

Police have since arrested Zvavada and he is assisting with investigations.

Zvavada’s accomplice, a taxi driver, Itai Matyoka (34), also of Ascot suburb, has also been arrested.

City of Gweru deputy chief fire officer, Mr Lyndon Hove, said investigations into the cause of the fire were underway.

“We were called to attend a fire at a house along Fusire Street in Ascot at around 1AM. We rescued two people who were badly burnt. We rushed them to Gweru General Hospital but I hear their condition deteriorated and they have been transferred to Parirenyatwa Hospital,” said Mr Hove.

He said one of the tenants at the house brought a boyfriend before the fire started.

“The two people in the room failed to escape as the door looked like it had been locked from outside,” he said.

He said Ms Hlabangana and her boyfriend could have been burnt to ashes if fellow tenants had not united to swiftly put out the fire.

When The Chronicle visited the house yesterday afternoon, the news crew was greeted by acrid stench of charred flesh emanating from the bombed room.

All the furniture in the house had been burnt.

Fellow tenants at the house said they were awakened around 1AM by smoke as the fire spread to other rooms of the nine-roomed house.

They said Ms Hlabangana had been having problems with Zvavada.

“I was choking from smoke and I heard people screaming for help. I went out and realised that there was a fire spreading to my room from this girl’s room. We teamed up and put out the fire using buckets of water. The fire brigade came and the two people in the room were rushed to hospital. This morning we heard that the boyfriend — Garikayi — had been arrested together with a taxi driver,” said Mr Moffat Tizayi.

Another tenant, Ms Farai Phenius, said: “After his (Zvavada’s) arrest he told the investigating officers that he had lost a lot of money pampering his girlfriend.

“Zvavada kept telling the police that he had invested a lot of money into his relationship with the girl and wanted to kill her as revenge for the money he had spent on her,” she said.

“Before throwing the petrol bombs, he shouted that he was going to kill her. He broke a window pane, started a small fire outside the window before throwing the petrol bombs into the tiny room. It’s by the grace of God that they are alive.”

Efforts to get a comment from Midlands provincial police spokesperson Inspector Joel Goko were fruitless as he was said to be out of office. —

@pchitumba1