A 70-year-old Zimbabwean man from Buhera will spend the rest of his life in prison after he was sentenced to three life sentences for shooting and killing his employee’s wife and children.

One of the children was 1-year-old at the time.

According to iHarare, Mutare High Court judge, Justice Hlekani Mwayera convicted Takadu Oxford Mangwiro on three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder.

Justice Mwayera sentenced the septuagenarian to 3 live sentences for the murder convictions as well as an additional 10-years in prison for the attempted murder conviction.

During the course of the trial, the court heard that in 2018 Mangwiro had an altercation with his domestic worker Farai Mandingo who took care of his Buhera home. Mangwiro accused Mandingo of stealing some of his produce, a charge which the latter furiously denied.

After a heated confrontation, Mangwiro fired Mandingo and ordered him to vacate his premises immediately together with his wife and two children aged one and four. Mandingo, however, said that he had no bus fare to vacate immediately and slept at the residence.

The next morning an angry Mangwiro armed himself with a 303 pistol and fired two shots at Mandingo. Both shots missed. Mandingo then fled from the homestead and went to report the incident to the police.

Unfortunately, Mangwiro took out his rage on Mandingo’s wife and two children who were sleeping in their bedroom. He barged into the room and gunned down all three of them before hiding the bodies in a rubbish pit and fleeing into the mountains.

He was apprehended a few days after the murder.