The ManicaPost
In any normal circumstance, most parents would rather die protecting their children. But for a father to look at his children, hear their cries, see their uncomprehending faces, and then kill them, is too ghastly to contemplate on.
And of all violent crimes, those where a parent takes the lives of his children are the most baffling and gruesome.
Elsewhere in this issue, we carry a heart-rending story in which a Birchenough Bridge father axed and burnt his three children, leaving two of them dead.
Fashion Mupakati, who is now on the police most wanted list, also set the family’s property on fire.
At the centre of this abhorrent act is a question wrapped in such complexity that it can never be satisfactorily answered.
What drives an individual, a father for that matter, to carry out an act of such unspeakable brutality against his own children? Is it despair, revenge or a madly possessive love? And what if anything can be done to prevent it?
The most significant factors for committing such a heinous crime are family break-up, jealousy, a need to be in control and extreme possessiveness.
And to the outside world, the common and convenient explanation for the Birchenough Bridge incident is Mupakati must have snapped, lost his mind in a moment of madness.
But it is clear that for Mupakati, it is jealousy and extreme possessiveness.
According to the wife, things came to a head after Mupakati bumped into mobile phone chats between the wife and the husband’s uncle.
However, the chats are innocuous by all standards but the possessive Mupakati was offended by the mere fact that the two chatted together.
Experts believe that family murderers have prior criminal records and there is often a prior pattern of domestic abuse. Mupakati has a previous criminal record of murdering his girl friend.
It may not be surprising therefore that the murder of his children was not spontaneous, but something well premeditated and driven by extreme possessiveness.
The fact Mupakati had murdered his girl friend and that his wife had run away from his threatening behaviour several times, were enough warning signs to warrant intervention, especially from family members.
They should have noticed how Mupakati reacted to things not going his way — the irrational rage and extreme possessiveness.
It is clear that Mupakati did not kill his children in the heat of the moment or in a fit of rage.
He was very methodical and had planned out this for a long time. We all go through life distressing circumstances but taking away lives, especially of children should never be the way to deal with a problem.
A hysterical and over-reactive Mupakati has committed a horrific crime. No one really knows what was going on in Mupakati’s mind when he committed the crime and it is difficult to fathom how he would annihilate innocent children, who looked up to their father for protection.
The mere presence of a father makes children feel safe and secure. But this was not to be for the two poor children.
We cannot afford to recoil in horror at such tragedies and seek comfort in the belief that they are isolated incidents and, as a consequence, impossible to avert.
Mupakati may run and hide, but the long arm of the law will eventually catch up with him.
We feel for the wife and the child who survived the axing and burning. The two are traumatised and need all the support. Their healing process should begin now.
