Isabel Ndlovu
ZVISHAVANE – Violet Dziva of Ivhukuvanhu in Mberengwa under Chief Maziofa approached the magistrate court for help to recover a beast she paid as cover up for an alleged rape offence committed by her son.
The deal to conceal the alleged rape, however, turned sour after the family of the victim failed to maintain their side of the bargain after they took back their daughter against an earlier agreement that she would be allowed to stay with her boyfriend as his wife.
The court was told that the applicant had paid a cow to the girl’s father (name withheld to protect the girl) so that he could keep quiet about the rape and allow his daughter to become Dziva’s daughter in-law.
The court heard that the girl (name withheld to protect her identity) who is 17, had sex with Dziva’s son. Her father then noticed blood stains on her clothes and quizzed her about it until she opened up to his father that she had lost virginity to Dziva’s son.
Upon hearing that, the father sent his daughter packing. The daughter left home to stay with her boyfriend at Dziva’s homestead.
The two families then approached Chief Maziofa for a solution and the chief advised them to settle their matter amicably.
The girl’s father went on to demand a beast and two goats from Dziva so that he would not take back his daughter whom he said had stayed too long with Dziva’s family.
The applicant then paid the requested beast and offered US$200 in place of the two goats.
The magistrate Shepherd Munjanja ordered the respondent to return the beast and money to Dziva and advised him to report the rape case to the police.news
