DEEPLY moved by the murder of 25 people in Guruve, which is still a shock to the community and the nation at large, First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa visited alleged serial killer Anymore Zvitsva at Chikurubi Maximum Security Prison in Harare.
The murders left deep trauma across Guruve, with some homes later abandoned as families struggled to recover from the attacks.Inside the country’s most secure prison facility, visibly shaken and still failing to come to terms with the murders, the First Lady, who also personally visited the affected families in Guruve, sat across from Zvitsva, trying to understand if he was indeed a “human being.”
She was seeking insight into the mind of the man responsible for the brutal killings that left the nation reeling.
Dr Mnangagwa, who said she was troubled in mind before deciding to see Zvitsva face to face, said the execution of the murders was deeply shocking, such that some communities have since left their homesteads as they are still yet to come to terms with the sad incident, hence the need to hear from the horse’s mouth.Seated in a wheelchair, Zvitsva shared his harrowing tale of cooking and eating human flesh, cutting body parts such as breasts, which he sold to a local miner for rituals at a mine, and selling blood from victims to a self-styled prophet.
He also said he would burn victims’ body parts to ashes, some of which he would mix with cooking oil to use as lotion as part of fortune telling, with some ashes having been used to construct a shop influenced by beliefs that such acts could bring wealth.Zvitsva also explained the weapons he used, such as a knife, spear and axe, also sharing how he managed to escape law-enforcement agents and villagers by walking barefoot and avoiding roads for fear of being traced
.First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa listens as Guruve serial murder suspect Anymore Zvitsva recounts his ordeal during a visit at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare
When the First Lady asked Zvitsva about why he was arrested, he openly admitted to his crimes, saying: “I committed crimes of killing people, rape and robberies in Guruve, Zimbabwe.”First Lady Dr Auxillia Mnangagwa listens as Guruve serial murder suspect Anymore Zvitsva recounts his ordeal during a visit at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in HarareDr Mnangagwa, extremely worried about how Zvitsva carried out the crimes, sought to be taken through what transpired from the first murder before he recounted his alleged first killing.happened during what he initially intended to be a theft.
“It’s hard for me to understand how I started this, but what I still remember is that I was hungry and went to break into a home searching for food, but there was no one and I ended up stealing about 10 kilogrammes of mealie-meal.
“I left with a conviction that with what was there, the woman might have had some cash and decided that later that evening I would return. Around 10 pm, near midnight, I returned, knocking on the door, and the owner asked who it was and I replied that she had been robbed.”
Zvitsva said the woman then pointed at him as the stealer of the 10kg mealie-meal and he laughed before the woman opened the door, trying to chase him away, but he torched her with a cellphone and realised she was holding an iron axe.
“I panicked and realised that if I did not attack first, I would be overpowered. I then attacked her with the back of a knife (a Colombian knife) on the forehead. She started crying before retreating with more power,” he told the First Lady.A struggle broke out and he had to drop his cellphone so that he could grab the axe, but during that time, the woman managed to grab her child, Zvitsva’s phone, and ran away into the bush.
“I became afraid that this woman is powerful like a soldier. If I followed her, she would beat me up, but I thought of my phone, which would be used as evidence, so I took the axe and started following her. My phone had a light, so she was struggling to switch it off and that is when I spotted her.
“When I came close to her, I pleaded for my phone, but she denied, saying it would be used as evidence to the police. I then told her I would kill her, but she never took any of it before grabbing a brick and hitting me in the stomach. I became furious then charged towards her before hitting her with the back of an axe,” he said.
Zvitsva said the woman refused to surrender and grabbed his legs. He then grabbed his knife and stabbed the woman in the back.
“That is when I realised I had stabbed someone. This was when my journey of killing people began in 2024.”
Afterwards, he fled the scene and ran towards his home, realising that he had killed someone, but he said that if he had had some guts, he would have helped save the woman by stopping the bleeding, but fear engulfed him.
For Zvitsva, he said, since then, life has never been the same, even in his dreams.
“The day I killed her, she appeared in a dream saying moto wawabatidza uyu haudzimwe yatova ngozi yakaparwa nevakuru venyu dzinza renyu hameno uchazviita sei?”
Zvitsva said he then woke up and became frightened, as he was visualising her, thinking maybe she was outside with her relatives, and spent the whole day locking his door.
On the second count, Zvitsva said he met his niece with her child, who asked him about his whereabouts before she accused him of attempting to steal, as she used to know him.
