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Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
A RUSAPE man dragged his neighbour to court demanding US$3 000 and three beasts as damages for allegedly impregnating his 18-year-old daughter before emotionally abusing her until she suffered a miscarriage.
A fuming Masimba Chirindo of Mabvazuva suburb in Rusape, appeared before Chief Makoni’s community court recently, where he had yanked his daughter, Tanyaradzwa’s boyfriend, Theophilus Nyamutowera, demanding compensation from the latter.
Chirindo claimed that in January, after finding out that Nyamutowera was dating his daughter, they made him sign an agreement that he would only marry the teenager in 2025 upon the completion of her studies.
Chirindo said his daughter had passed her Ordinary Level education and she was due to enrol for tertiary education in Gweru when Nyamutowera impregnated her.
“Nyamutowera told us that he wanted to marry my daughter. We agreed that he would continue to date her, but would only marry her in 2025. However, four months after the agreement, we realised that our daughter was already pregnant, and she eloped to him. For that, I want US$3 000 and three beasts,” said the man.
He said he only got to know of the pair’s relationship sometime in December 2022 after his daughter came home late and saw her being dropped off by Nyamutowera.
“When I asked her why she had come back home late, she said she had gone to look for a residential stand with Nyamutowera. She said they wanted to move to that residential stand after their marriage. We asked our daughter to introduce her boyfriend to the family. She brought him home in January this year. By then, she was only 17 and was still in school. We told him that we wanted her to complete her studies first and could only marry her after 2025. He agreed to the arrangement.
“We made him to sign a written agreement that he was our daughter’s boyfriend. On April 14, I was told that Nyamutowera had impregnated Tanyaradzwa. The pregnancy was said to be seven weeks old, but Tanyaradzwa was still a minor then. We called Nyamutowera to explain what was happening, but he denied paternity. Eventually, our daughter eloped to Nyamutowera, and they have been cohabiting since then,” he said.
Chirindo said on June 4 late in the night, Tanyaradzwa came back home screaming that Nyamutowera wanted to kill her. He was accusing her of cheating on him.
“We let her in. We later called Nyamutowera and he openly told us that he no longer loved Tanyaradzwa as he doubted the paternity of the unborn baby. Unfortunately, when we went to the hospital with our daughter the following day, we discovered that the foetus had died,” said the man.
Chirindo added: “Initially, we wanted US$1 500 from Nyamutowera, and he had agreed to pay the money. Since then, he has been playing hide and seek with us. I decided to approach this community court after discovering that Nyamutowera was non-committal to our agreement.”
In his response, Nyamutowera denied forcing Tanyaradzwa to abort.
He said, specialists had told them that Tanyaradzwa had cysts and fibroids in her womb which had caused the death of the foetus.
“Her mother knew of our relationship well before the formal introductions. Tanyaradzwa invited me for the introductions, saying her parents wanted to meet me. The truth is that Tanyaradzwa was promiscuous.
“She had many boyfriends and was sleeping with them even though she was a teenager. There were four of us dating her, and I only agreed to stay with her after her parents forced me to do so. They threatened to have me arrested for sleeping with a minor as she was only 17,” he said.
Nyamutowera also said during the three months that they stayed together, Tanyaradzwa was abusive as he had to sleep in the car on many occasions just to avoid her.
“She later told me that two other men had also slept with her. She said she was never in a relationship with them. I asked her to make a police report so that I could buy her story, but her father refused,” he said.
Chief Makoni said Nyamutowera would not pay the US$3 000 as damages as that would turn the girl into a money-making machine.
He, however, ordered Nyamutowera to pay a beast to the girl’s parents.
“You should not have sanitised this error of your teenage daughter having a boyfriend by having him sign that he would marry her in 2025.
“That was very wrong. You were part of this shameful act. You should have punished her instead of sanitising her unruly relationship. As a result, we will not grant any monetary damages in this matter, but just damages that he slept with your 17-year-old daughter,” he said.
Chief Makoni ordered Nyamutowera to have paid the beast and two goats by January 31, 2024.
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