A DRUNKEN 54-year-old shebeen queen from Bulawayo allegedly
stabbed a man to death in Pumula East suburb after a misunderstanding on
Saturday night.
Marshal Mkwananzi (21) originally from Zvishavane was
visiting his siblings in Bulawayo when he met his end at Zenzele Bottle Store.
Sithembiso Mzizi allegedly smashed a beer bottle and used
the jagged ends to stab Mkwananzi in the neck. Witnesses said blood gushed from the wound and
Mkwananzi tried in vain to stem the flow with his hands.
He died as he was being rushed to hospital. The Chronicle
caught up with Mkwananzi’s family yesterday and relatives said he was a
peaceful man who died a painful death.
Residents on the other hand, described Mzizi as a “drama
queen” who once stripped naked after having a misunderstanding with a fellow
imbiber. They said Mzizi, also a shebeen
queen in the area, was a bully and always carried a knife to scare anyone who
dared cross her path.
“I was awakened at 11PM yesterday and informed that my
grandson had been stabbed at a bottle store. I woke up and rushed there and
could only find a pool of blood as the owner of the bottle store rushed him to
Mpilo Central Hospital,” said Mkwananzi’s grandmother Ms Patricia Mnkandla.
“Allegations are that she used a broken bottle, which I
doubt very much because when I got to the scene, there were no pieces of broken
glass but blood all over the room he was stabbed in,” she said.
According to Ms Mnkandla, witnesses and neighbours
confirmed Mzizi stabbed her grandson.
She said Mkwananzi’s brother-in-law had failed to save his
life after he was stabbed.
He said he tried to stop the bleeding by pressing a piece
of cloth against the wound but Mkwananzi was bleeding so profusely that within
seconds the whole room had been filled with blood.
“We have tried to gather what really happened for her to
stab my child and they keep saying Marshall was caught in a cross fire. Someone
claimed the misunderstanding was over beer but I still cannot understand how
and why such an elderly woman could have killed our child,” added Ms Mnkandla.
She said although the family was still in shock, they had
started to make arrangements for the burial.
“My grandson lived in Zvishavane and had just visited his
sisters as usual. He decided to go for drinks with his brothers-in-law and the
next thing, he was dead. He didn’t even make it to hospital,” said Ms Mnkandla.
Efforts to get a comment from the bottle store owner were
fruitless as he could not be reached.
Bulawayo provincial police spokesperson Chief Inspector
Precious Simango said she was yet to receive the report.
A neighbour who preferred anonymity claimed that Mzizi was
heard bragging that she had stabbed Mnkandla and was not scared of arrest.
“She openly told us that she is not even scared of the
police and that nothing was going to be done to her. We are still in shock and
we will forever be traumatised by the amount of blood that spouted from the
boy’s neck after he was stabbed,” he said. Chronicle
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