A man from Mutasa, Manicaland Province, claims his in-laws defrauded him by marrying off his wife of six years to another man behind his back.
Livingstone Chimombe (36) told The Manica Post that his wife, Pamela Nyarukuwa (30) was married off by her family on 17 December after he was made to believe that she was only visiting her family for a traditional rite. He said:
Pamela was my wife for six years and we have a five-month-old baby together. In December, she told me that she was travelling to her maternal grandparents’ home as her brothers wanted to pay chiredzwa for her to her grandparents who looked after her as she grew up.
I gave her US$40 to buy drinks for my in-laws and US$20 for her well-being. Little did I know that she was going to get married to someone else.
She would tell me that everything was going on well because I had failed to accompany her due to work commitments.
I honestly thought she was talking about the chiredzwa (thank you token) proceedings, but instead, she was talking about her marriage.
After her marriage, she went back to the house I was renting for her in Sakubva and stayed there while I was at work in Old Mutare.
Chimombe further claimed that he only got to know of Pamela’s new husband after her uncle informed him. He said:
The uncle told me that they were shocked when a new man appeared on the day as they expected me as they had been told.
When I went to Sakubva to confront her, Pamela called the police and I was arrested.
I am so heartbroken that I do not know what to do. She even changed goalposts and claimed that the child was not mine.
She should come back and collect her belongings that are still at my house in Old Mutare.
Chimombe said that he was in the process of reporting the matter at Chief Mutasa’s court so that the Nyarukuwas will reimburse his roora.
However, the Jerera and Nyarukuwa families denied that Chimombe was their son-in-law.
They said that during the course of the six-year-old partnership between Chimombe and their daughter, no bride price was paid to them.
Pamela said she was never married to Chimombe but was only dating him saying they were not staying together. She said:
I left this man some months back. I even blocked all his numbers as he keeps pestering me, asking me to rekindle our lost love.
I never stayed with [him]. He stayed elsewhere while I stayed in Sakubva. He only paid my rent because we were dating.
Nyarukuwa’s uncle, Billy Jerera, confirmed that his niece stayed with Chimombe for six years but that he did not pay the bride price.
Chimombe confirmed not paying the bride price for Pamela, saying she always denied him access to her relatives. He said:
I would have paid lobola for her in 2017, but she refused, saying that chiredzwa had not yet been paid to her grandparents.
I took this woman to school with my money, but she is now paying me back in this manner.