BY MOSES MATENGA POLICE have raised concern over an increase in murder cases across the country and attributed alcohol abuse and infidelity to the rise in killings, particularly under the COVID-19 national lockdown. National police spokesperson Assistant Commission Paul Nyathi said in six days, 16 people were murdered under different circumstances and urged people to respect the sanctity of human life. “The Zimbabwe Republic Police notes with concern the upsurge in murder cases during the period extending from 13 to 19 August 2020 were 16 cases were recorded countrywide. It is disturbing that some people no longer have respect for the sanctity of human life,” Nyathi said. He said two cases of patricide were recorded in Tsholotsho and Mutare where two fathers were murdered by their own sons over petty disputes. “In the other case, which occurred in Mutare, a 37-year-old man accused his father (65) of cheating on his mother during a beer drink and assaulted him by pulling his private parts.” Nyathi said infidelity has also contributed for the loss of lives during the period under review adding that a 22-year-old woman in Dema was murdered by her boyfriend while a 19-year-old female was murdered in Kadoma for permitting the accused person’s girlfriend to meet with another man at her house. “In Goromonzi, an eighty-year-old woman was found dead at her homestead with her legs tied and her face swollen,” Nyathi said. In Epworth, a 66-year-old man was also found dead in his house with wounds on the chest, stomach and broken right hand and on August 18, two men fatally assaulted a 21-year-old man who they accused of attempting to steal from their tuck-shop after finding him loitering.