Zimbabwean Woman Pays Own Lobola
A woman from Chigodora who lent her husband money for her lobola has been divorced after demanding the money back, reported The Manica Post.
The woman, Jennifer Maparanyanga claimed that her husband, Kenny Mlambo was loving and caring during the first few years of their marriage but became abusive after she asked him to pay back the US$300 that she loaned him for her bride price.
The matter was recently heard by Headman Chigodora’s court where Jennifer was accompanied by her father, Phineas Maparanyanga.
Jennifer claimed she had tried to seek help from the police and family elders, all in vain. She said:
When he eventually paid the money, he told me that the money was now my husband since I loved it so much.
He started coming home late and would sleep clad in his work suits, denying me my conjugal rights. He says the money should fulfil those matrimonial duties.
Jennifer told the community court that she only agreed to help Mlambo with the lobola money due to her love for him and the fact that she desperately wanted to get married. She said:
He told me that he wanted to marry me but only had US$600, which to him was very little and disrespectful to my father.
I lent him US$300 to top up his money. He promised to pay back the money the following month but failed to do so.
I was shocked when Mlambo and the go-between only paid the US$300 that I had given him.
I asked him about the other US$600 that he had claimed he had, and he told me that he had used it to buy the clothes they were putting on during the ceremony.
He said the rest of the money had been confiscated by his mother.
Jennifer’s father, Phineas Maparanyanga, said he was hurting because Mlambo was staying with his daughter for “free” as she had paid her own lobola. He said:
She was trying to keep this issue under wraps because she loves her husband. However, one day, I interrogated her about why they were always fighting. She told me the genesis of their endless fights.
She burst into tears, confessing that she had unknowingly paid her own lobola. I was hurt because Mlambo tricked my daughter.
Up to now, I am still hurt because he is staying with my daughter for “free”.
Mlambo said he wants to divorce Jennifer for spreading lies that he is dysfunctional in bed. He said:
She is pregnant, yet she tells me that I am useless in bed and that I sleep in my work suits. Had I been useless in bed, she would not be pregnant.
Why does she insist that I am responsible for the pregnancy? I now believe that she is carrying someone else’s baby.
I want her out of my life but her parents are refusing to take her back because they claim that I tricked her into paying her own lobola. I have since paid the money that I owed her,
In his ruling, Headman Chigodora said it was an abomination that Mlambo had made his wife pay her own lobola.
The traditional leader ordered Mlambo to pay damages to the Maparanyanga family. Said Headman Chigodora:
Since you no longer want their daughter after you tricked her into marrying herself, you will have to pay damages of US$3 000.
You did not pay any lobola to the Maparanyangas since it was their daughter’s money that you paid them during the lobola ceremony.
What you did was very disrespectful to your in-laws and your wife. You are a trickster, and for that, you need to work hard and pay the damages to them.
More: Pindula News
