Man in court for setting in-law’s vehicle ablaze

A DISPUTE between a man and his former sister-in-law did not end well after the man allegedly burnt her motor vehicle that was parked at her house in revenge.

Emmanuel Muzeza (40) appeared before Harare regional magistrate Mr Stanford Mambanje last Friday, charged with malicious damage to property belonging to Ms Nelliah Mandlokuwa (38) and was remanded in custody to March 7. The court heard Muzeza was once married to Ms Mandlokuwa’s younger sister, but they later divorced.

Muzeza allegedly believes the divorce was caused by Ms Mandlokuwa and since then there has been tension between the two to an extent that at one point, he visited her workplace complaining about the issue.

The marriage was blessed with two children, a boy doing Grade 5 and a girl who is in Grade 3.

Muzeza stayed with the boy, while the girl was with Ms Mandlokuwa.

On February 1, Muzeza phoned Ms Mandlokuwa using his mobile phone, telling her that he was bringing the Grade 5 child over to her house, but she refused to supply her address.

He then misrepresented to his former wife that Ms Mandlokuwa had agreed to take the Grade 5 child and got directions to her where he left the child in the absence of Ms Mandlokuwa.

On February 4 around 1.40am, Muzeza, in the company of his accomplices Tafadzwa and Tichaona, planned to “fix” Ms Mandlokuwa and allegedly armed themselves with a 2 litre container of petrol and unknown explosive material and proceeded to her house.

They allegedly used the petrol to set on fire her Nissan AD van that was parked about 80cm from her bedroom window.

Ms Mandlokuwa heard a loud explosion outside and peeped through the window and saw her car in flames.

The fire nearly engulfed the house in which she was sleeping with her husband.

They then rushed out and saw a 2 litre container with half contents of petrol a few metres from their car. At around 6.40am, Muzeza phoned his ex-wife purporting that he was in Shurugwi, yet he was in Harare.

Investigations made through service providers showed that both Muzeza’s NetOne and Econet lines were at or near the scene on the day in question, leading to his arrest on February 21 in Shurugwi.

The value of the damage is US$6 500 and nothing was recovered.