HARARE – A woman who admitted killing her four children aged nine, five, three and one by slitting their throats with a knife is six months pregnant, it emerged on Thursday.
Emelda Marazani, 29, is recovering at Chivhu General Hospital after drinking poison following Wednesday’s gruesome killings in Highview suburb in the small town.
She told deputy health minister John Mangwiro bedside at the hospital that she would “take care of her unborn baby and protect her at all costs,” according to the ZBC.
Expressing regret over the murders, Marazani said she killed the children because her husband, Lameck Brande, only cared about them and not her.
Her story changed, however, in the course of her discussion with Mangwiro. She said she decided to kill the children and take her own life because Brande had said none of them were his children.
“He said all the children were not his. He always tells me that he does not produce girls, just boys. This hurt me and on Wednesday he repeated that the children were not his. He is also a womaniser and that is hurting me,” Marazani said.
Police are ready to charge Marazani with four counts of murder, and social services are also expected to step in after she gives birth.
Doctors are still investigating if the unborn child has not been harmed by the poison which Marazani consumed after the killings, following which she set the family home on fire.
Brande said during disputes with Marazani, which he said were mostly “petty”, she often vowed she would “leave me with nothing.”
“We had our misunderstandings but they were petty. At one point during our misunderstandings, she told me that she would leave me with nothing. I never imagined that she would go to the extent of killing our children. I’m in pain,” he said, wiping away tears.
