BY KENNETH NYANGANI A Mutare woman who recently completed a teacher training course, died two days after delivering a stillborn baby reportedly after enduring prolonged periods of vicious assaults at the hands of her husband, The Standard heard.
Her husband, Hillary Gororo, is a police officer based at Domboshava Police Support Unit.
Soul Nyagumbo from Mutare, the father of the now deceased Mavis, is demanding justice for his daughter who allegedly suffered at the hands of Gororo, his son-in-law.
Nyagumbo’s family is demanding a postmortem which they say police at Mutare General Hospital are trying to block.
Mavis delivered a stillborn child on January 3 at the hospital and she died two days later.
She is yet to be buried as the family is demanding a postmortem.
“My daughter was married in Domboshava to a Zimbabwe Republic Police Support Unit officer (Gororo) two years ago and he is currently based at Buchwa police station,” Nyagumbo said.
“Last year in October my daughter called me at around midnight saying she had been assaulted by her husband. I called both of them and the husband apologised,” he said
“The following morning my daughter called me again, saying her hand was swollen and she was in pain and I told her to go to hospital. My daughter later called me to say she had been admitted at Parirenyatwa Group of Hospitals, but later in the day she said she was going back home as she had left a child at home.
“She also revealed that her blood pressure was high and I advised her to come home. Late in December she came to her aunt’s house in Mutare and she was seriously ill and we discovered that she was also heavily pregnant.”
Nyagumbo said Mavis died a painful death with a broken leg and a broken hand.
“She had wounds all over her body from the mouth, to the stomach. Nurses told us that she had an infection which was caused by giving birth to a stillborn baby,” he said.
“All hell broke loose when we went to the hospital to collect my daughter’s bags soon after her death. We found out there were many assault cases. In some cases the husband had used objects to assault her. l cried.
“My daughter told her aunt before passing away that she was quiet about the abuse just to protect her marriage.”
Mavis had just finished her teaching course at Bondolfi Teachers’ College in Masvingo.
Nyagumbo said that his son-in-law failed to visit Mavis when she was sick, “only to come during the funeral wake carrying 10 cabbages and tomatoes”.
He said his son-in-law never paid lobola, but a small token to alert the in-laws that he was staying with their daughter.
Gororo yesterday disputed the allegations, saying they were waiting for the post-mortem.
“These are all lies. We are just waiting for the postmortem. I am not an abuser,” he said
The postmortem will now be carried out on January 25 in Harare.
Nyagumbo said he had approached Mutare Central Police Officer in Charge Medson Karidza to open a murder case against Gororo.
Karidza told this publication that the report should be made at Domboshava.
Acting Manicaland police spokesman Assistant inspector Wiseman Chinyoka said they were yet to get a report of police blocking a postmortem.