HARARE – A woman shot by soldiers in a post-election massacre on August 1 was laid to rest in Harare on Wednesday.
Sylvia Maphosa, 52, had just left work at the Zimbabwe National Water Authority when she was shot at the back after the government of President Emmerson Mnangagwa sent in soldiers to disrupt an opposition protest over delays in announcing Presidential Election results.
The soldiers beat up protesters and journalists and opened fire on the fleeing opposition activists, killing at least seven people and wounding 11 others. Some, like Sylvia, were caught in the crossfire.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at her home in Waterfalls on Saturday as relatives wept. She was buried at the Zororo Memorial Gardens along Seke Road in Harare.
The government paid for her funeral, according to her family and friends.
Many mourners declined to talk to journalists, among them Maphosa’s niece, Prisca Mupfumira, Zimbabwe’s Minister of Tourism.
Mupfumira, following a script from her government, earlier laid the blame for her aunt’s death on MDC Alliance supporters who marched to the headquarters of the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) in protest.
“The issue here isn’t who was killed‚ but who are the irresponsible leaders who incited the unrest. The world must know who the people are who ordered their supporters to go on the streets and cause havoc,” Mupfumira said on Thursday.
She maintained that MDC Alliance leaders should be held responsible, a line taken by President Emmerson Mnangagwa who has, however, failed to say who gave the orders to shoot at unarmed protesters. Mnangagwa also appeared not to have been aware of the deployment of soldiers, even though the constitution requires him to authorise.
Mnangagwa, who narrowly won the presidential election with 50.8 percent to avoid a runoff by just 38,000 votes, said on Friday that he would be setting up an independent inquiry whose composition will also include foreigners.
The slain woman’s husband, Robert Maphosa, said he had intended to go and pick her up from work but she had advised him to stay away because of the clashes between security forces and several hundred opposition supporters.
But within minutes, he said his son had sent him a WhatsApp message with a picture showing his wife lying face down in a street with a gunshot wound at the back. Dead.
#Pray4Zimbabwe
Look at this Zimbabwean soldier is shooting at people with no care, to them it's a game. pic.twitter.com/8EokXEtpwr— Nkululeko (@nkulipp) August 2, 2018
When he spoke to journalists on Friday, Maphosa had not heard from the government or the army.
He said his wife was the breadwinner in the family after he lost his job. His son had recently got married and moved out of their home. Life would be tough without his wife, he said.
A former colleague who worked with Sylvia, a mother of two, at the water authority remembered her as a fun person to be around.
“It’s so painful. She was one of those people who could just make your day because of her sense of humour,” said the colleague.
The army shootings have drawn international condemnation and demands for all involved in the decision to shoot at civilians to be charged.
