A MARANGE teenage mother is recovering at Mutare Provincial Hospital after her husband turned cannibal and viciously mauled her mouth and face leaving her with cavernous wounds.
When The Manica Post visited Rachel Mafuta (18) at the hospital on Monday, she could hardly talk and was deeply in pain. The deep bite wounds littered her face, including lips, cheeks and ears.
Rachel said, with difficulty and tears welling down her cheeks, her rabid husband Johannes Karimanzira (24), of Wendumba Village under Chief Marange, spontaneously became violent and turned her into mince-meat.
He allegedly threatened to devour her alive and shed additional blood, in an unprovoked attack, in the family that fateful night.
Karimanzira’s granny has allegedly vanished from the homestead after he threatened her with death.
Rachel is also a victim of early child marriage, having eloped to Karimanzira when she was only 13.
She also had a miscarriage in the early years of her premature marriage, and is currently breastfeeding the first child in hospital. Rachel battled to hold tears as she recalled the horror of the fateful night.
She was overpowered by fear and begged her distraught parents not to report her violent husband to police.
“He told me that he was going to kill me, but I thought it was a joke until he started biting my face and lips. He bit my ears and when I tried to push him away, he mauled my hands.
“He shouted that blood was supposed to be spilled that night and that I was supposed to be a sacrificial lamb. I was supposed to die since his ancestors had elected me. As we speak, his grandmother whom we stay with has already disappeared since he also told her that she was the next victim,” she narrated the sad ordeal.
“When I tried to call out for help he bit my lips. He was only restrained by relatives who rushed to the scene to rescue me after they heard my calls. Had it not been for them, I would be dead by now,” Rachel said.
She said a few days preceding the attack, she had asked Karimanzira for permission to visit her parents in Mutare, fearing for her life due to an upsurge in his violent penchant towards her.
Karimanzira was allegedly infuriated by Rachel’s request.
Rachel’s mother, Ivy Maiwasha was still to come to terms with the incident.
Mrs Maiwasha was disturbed that a normal person would masticate a defenceless woman to that extent.
“It seems he has become a cannibal. I never wanted him to have my daughter in the first place. Look at what has happened. He should be arrested but she is protecting him since Karimanzira’s relatives instructed her not to make a police report. She does not want the police to arrest her husband but if we do not report this matter, he will come back and kill her one day. Can a normal husband be this ruthless on his wife?” queried Mrs Maiwasha.
The victim’s father Mr Simon Mafuta said Karimanzira had permanently deformed his daughter’s beautiful face and future. He said Karimanzira was a danger to society and should be locked in prison.
Mr Mafuta threatened to take the matter into his own hands if justice failed to take its course.
“I beg the police to act because as we speak the perpetrator is still roaming freely. He has destroyed my daughter and remains a danger to her. If they do not arrest him, I will do it myself since he has destroyed my daughter,” he said.
The Mafutas have since made a report to police.-Manicapost
