A PRISON officer stationed at Little Kraal Farm in Nyazura pumped three bullets into his head with a service rifle and died instantly following a wrangle with his wife over his alleged affair with a Form Three student.
Kenneth Mawonga (38) was found in a pool of blood by his workmates who had rushed to the scene after hearing gunshots.
Zimbabwe Prisons and Correctional Services’ public relations officer for Manicaland, Chief Correctional Officer Liberty Mhlanga confirmed the incident.
He, however, could not divulge more details, saying investigations are underway to ascertain the cause of the suicide.
“We confirm the regrettable incident, but investigations into the cause of the suicide are in progress,” he said.
However, homicide detectives handling the case revealed that Mawonga had a misunderstanding with his wife over his alleged affair with an under-age school girl.
Following Mawonga’s death, detectives went through his cellphone chats and discovered that he was at loggerheads with his wife over the alleged affair.
Further investigations saw detectives talking to the late Mawonga’s wife, Sharon Paimupindu (31), and she also revealed the couple had spoken about the extra marital affair.
“These are just assumptions of what could have caused the suicide basing on the cellphone conversations. We want to really dig deep into the matter and find out what happened,” said a detective who requested anonymity.
It is alleged that on September 29, Mawonga commenced duty in the morning and was deployed to do perimetre checks around prisoners’ cells.
At around lunch hour, he requested to change guard points with another officer, Tanaka Willard Matsaru, saying he did not want to continue working at the guard point he had been deployed.
Matsaru had been deployed at the Corner Post and was armed with a loaded service pistol.
Matsaru agreed to exchange guard points and handed over his service pistol to Mawonga.
Mawonga took over at the Corner Post until late in the afternoon when gunshots were heard.
An alarm was raised, resulting in all prison officers combing the area to establish what had transpired.
Upon checking the Corner Post guard room, the officers stumbled upon their colleague’s dead body.
A nurse who was summoned to attend the scene confirmed his death.
The matter was reported to the police.
Detectives who attended the scene discovered that Mawonga had wounds on his head, below the chin and on the left nostril.
Spent cartridges were picked from the underside of his chin.
The rifle in question was also recovered.
However, Paimupindu was not readily available for a comment as her mobile phone was not reachable. Manica Post
