HARARE – The family of a Bindura businesswoman who died on Tuesday night moments after a suspected sexual encounter with a top High Court judge, announced yesterday that they had requested a coroner’s inquest into their mother’s death, Daily News reported.
The family of 55-year-old Gladys Farai Mangwiro believes that there must be an autopsy, so that they find closure.
With the chain of events that led to her death raising a few eyebrows as details of her last hours have began to surface, close family members told the newspaper Friday that the body of Mangwiro was found lying naked at her home.
However, the “male counterpart”, who reported the matter to police was nowhere in sight when the law enforcement agents came to pick up the body.
Blood and froth were streaming from Mangwiro’s mouth.
Family members said it took some time for the male counterpart to report the case to police. This has angered family members.
The political leadership of Mashonaland Central including the resident minister Martin Dinha attended the funeral wake yesterday.
Mangwiro is expected to be buried today.
Close family sources said the male counterpart was a regular at the deceased’s house and often came in his official Mercedes Benz.
“She was found naked on the floor, frothing with blood on her mouth,” said a family source.
“When we heard that she had died, we rushed to her lodge, thinking that she had been involved in an accident because we had seen her on that day.
“However, we were informed that she had died at her home and when we went there, the male counterpart was not in sight.”
The unidentified man is a High Court judge (name withheld because police have not officially confirmed) who had been having an affair with the deceased for “quite a span”.
The judge rushed to the police when the woman became unresponsive after the two engaged in a sex act, according to police sources in Bindura where the judge allegedly made the report.
Family members also confirmed the judge and the woman were together in the bedroom when tragedy struck.
The businesswoman was later pronounced dead at a Bindura Hospital.
Family members on Thursday told the Daily News that Mangwiro developed sudden respiratory complication just before midnight on Tuesday.
Attempts to resuscitate her were fruitless.
But it emerged yesterday that the devastated judge unsuccessfully tried to save the woman, who lived alone.
A prominent resident of Bindura, Mangwiro sat on the boards of the Hospitality Association of Zimbabwe and the National Aids Council.
She was one of the most eminent women in Bindura having won the Mashonaland Central businesswoman of the year in 2010.
She was also a regular contributor to the Mayor’s Cheer Fund.
A top government official told this paper that theywere going to look into the matter.
According to the daughters, their mother was diagnosed with asthma a month ago and was given an inhaler that was found on her bedside after she died.
Mangwiro leaves behind three children and one grandson.
The Mangwiro family said they were still awaiting a post mortem report before her burial on Saturday at Pote Safaris, about 20km along the Bindura-Harare road.