A 31-year-old pharmacy technician at Nkayi District Hospital in Matabeleland North province has been arrested on allegations of murdering his wife after he doused her head with methylated spirit before setting her on fire.
Vusumuzi Ncube (31) was arrested on Monday following
investigations carried out by police over the death of his wife, Letwin Gotido
(34) sometime in March, following a domestic dispute.
The two were staying together with their three children and
a niece at Nkayi District Hospital Quarters. He was yesterday still in police custody and
assisting police with investigations.
National police spokesperson Assistant Commissioner Paul
Nyathi confirmed the arrest.
“Allegations are that sometime this year, the accused
(Ncube) came home around 1am while he was drunk and in the sitting room, there
was his niece aged 16 and three children aged nine, eight and six who were
sleeping,” he said.
“It is alleged that he woke up his niece and asked her to
accompany him outside and during the process, the accused person’s wife
(Gotido) woke up and followed them outside. She asked him why he had called the
niece outside especially during that time of the hour.”
Asst Comm Nyathi said this did not go down well with Ncube,
who then started beating up his wife until the children intervened. He then went to sleep alone in the bedroom
before Gotido followed him a few minutes later.
It is alleged that Ncube took a bottle of methylated
spirit, which he poured on her face and head before setting her on fire.
The children heard some noise and when they went inside the
bedroom, they found Ncube trying to cover Gotido’s face with a blanket, which
also caught fire. Water was then used to extinguish the fire before Gotido was
taken to Nkayi Hospital for treatment.
As a result of the severe burns, she was transferred to
Mpilo Hospital and during the process no one divulged what had happened.
She later died in March and a post-mortem was conducted
which revealed that she had died due to severe burns and in unclear
circumstances, prompting the officials to make a report to the police who
conducted investigations leading to Ncube’s arrest. Herald
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