A 30-year-old jilted husband from Jejeti Village, Kasibo area under Chief Whange set his former mother-in-law Mrs Moyo’s homestead on fire after his wife Nobuhle Mrs Moyo’s daughter left him, the Chronicle reports.
Absalom Nkomo had gone to Mrs Moyo’s house at night to enquire about his wife’s whereabouts and he was told she was not home and he proceeded to set Mrs Moyo’s huts on fire in a fit of rage.
According to the publication, Mrs Moyo and her 2 granddaughters survived the fire because they were already outside the house when he set the houses on fire.
The matter came to light in court where Nkomo stood accused of malicious damage to property. It is the state’s case that:
On the 9th day of August at around 11pm the complainant was in her bedroom hut with her grandchildren when the accused arrived. The accused asked his mother-in-law about his wife Nobuhle Moyo’s whereabouts and the complainant told him that she didn’t know where her daughter was. The accused became furious and insulted the complainant
Nkomo threatened to burn a kitchen hut and a bedroom hut unless they disclosed his wife’s whereabouts. Mrs Moyo and her granddaughters went out of the bedroom hut and begged Nkomo not to burn their huts but he became more violent, the court was told. Nkomo then entered the kitchen hut and took a burning log which he used to set the same hut alight.
Nkomo was fined $6000 by Hwange magistrate Ms Rangarirai Gakanje who also sentenced him to 10 months in prison before suspending 2 months on condition of good behaviour and also suspended the remaining 8 months on condition that he restitutes $203 400 the total value of the property destroyed in the fire and US$25 by Monday next week.
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