The ManicaPost
Luthando Mapepa Chipinge Correspondent
A CHIPINGE man dragged his polygamous neighbour to court accusing him of impregnating and forcing his 17-year-old daughter to abort. The applicant, Mr Noah Mahuke, approached Chipinge Civil Court on Monday, claiming $10 000 seduction damages from the elderly Musavengana Macheza of Plot II, Weltervred, Chipinge.
Chipinge magistrate, Mr Poterai Gwezhira presided over the matter. Mr Mahuke told the court that Macheza had a sexually relationship with his 17-year-old daughter which led to her falling pregnant sometimes in September. Mr Mahuke said Macheza ruined his daughter’s life since she was still attending school and in the middle of preparing for her Ordinary Level examinations. He also claimed that Macheza who was staying with his daughter as husband and wife sweet-talked her to abort.
“Macheza was fully aware that my daughter is still under age and went on to propose love to her when he saw her passing through his home going to school. When we realised that Macheza was in a relationship with my daughter we took her to his house to stay with his older wife as well as his children who are almost of the same age as her. He is staying with a 17-year-old child as his wife as we speak. I cannot claim lobola because of her age. This is the only course of action I can take. I sent emissaries to his homestead asking him to release my daughter, but he refused to surrender her back,” said Mr Mahuke.
When asked why he was demanding such a huge sum of money, Mahuke insisted that Macheza had ruined his daughter’s life.
“He has children who are almost of the same age as my daughter. He was supposed to act like a father to her, not to pounce on her like that. He ruined my daughter’s life because she was expected to sit for her Ordinary Level examinations this year. I want this to be a lesson to others that you cannot ruin young children’s lives like that and get away with it,” he said.
Mr Mahuke’s legal representative, Mr Langton Mhungu, called upon the courts to make the right decision in this case by saying that the $10 000 seduction suit was a small fee compared to the gross act of indecency that was committed by Mucheza.
“This man knew that this child was under age, but he proceeded to have unprotected intimacy with her, risking infecting this child with sexually transmitted diseases. What he did is inhuman and criminally wrong. At the moment, Mr Mahuke cannot claim lobola for a daughter who has been violated by a man who has a wife and children back home,” Mr Mhungu said.
