adminLeonard Ncube Court Reporter
AN ELDERLY couple from Brunapeg in Mangwe district gave away their granddaughter to a herd boy for marriage in exchange for a bag of mealie-meal and a few rands.
Msikana Ncube, 50, and her husband Khefasi Ngwenya, 60, were hauled before magistrates this week for allegedly forcing the 15-year-old into marriage.
The couple denied the charges before Bulawayo magistrate Gladmore Mushove. They claimed that they were severely assaulted by members of the Neighbourhood Watch Committee (NWC) to admit the charges.
Ncube, who had a swollen eye, said she sustained the injury during the assault, to which the court advised them to file assault charges.
Throughout the court hearing, Ncube would close her right eye with her palm. “It’s not true that I pledged my granddaughter. I never married her to anyone and I didn’t receive any money,” Ngwenya said.
The couple voluntarily spent two nights in custody, saying they had no money to travel back to their rural home in Sangulube.
The magistrate transferred the matter to Plumtree Magistrates’ Court where the couple will appear on January 22.
Mushove said there was no way the couple – who said it was their first time to come to Bulawayo – could be helped with traveling expenses.
Prosecutors say sometime in October last year, Ncube and Ngwenya were faced with hunger and approached Melusi Ncube, a neighbour, to ask for food.
Ncube allegedly told the two that he had no food to spare for them and in desperation, the couple promised to give him a wife.
“In October last year Ncube and Ngwenya pledged their granddaughter, Sibonginkosi Moyo, to Ncube and they agreed that he would give them food and money,” prosecutor Raymond Makhaza told the court.
Melusi, who is a State witness, will tell the court that a few days later, Msikana Ncube visited his home in the company of the unsuspecting teenage girl whom she directed into his bedroom.
She told Melusi to have sex with the girl because she was now his wife. He told police investigators that he did have sex with her.
Prosecutors say the skint couple demanded lobola for the girl in November but he told them he had no money. After the couple begged, the court heard, he gave them R564 cash. The matter came to light when the girl confided to her aunt who phoned the girl’s mother who returned home from Botswana and immediately called in the police.
Forcibly marrying out any individual is in breach of Chapter Two, Section 26 of the country’s Constitution, which imposes a duty on the State to ensure that no marriage is entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.
The Act also prohibits pledging of children in marriage.
Online Reporter