IF you’ve ever been cheated on, you know that discovering a partner’s affair hits you like a devastating punch to the gut.
It doesn’t matter how sure you were about the suspected infidelity but nothing can prepare you for the initial shock like discovering that your wife whom you had paid lobola for, who had been refusing to have sex claiming she was a virgin has been married off to another man behind your back.
Yes, you read it right being married off by her parents, to a married man for that matter.
This is a situation that no man would ever want to experience but it was at play when Tawanda Makwiramiti from Harare, who is now at loggerheads with his in-laws from Bulawayo’s Mahatshula North suburb, discovered they allegedly married off his wife Rejoice Nheta to Laurence Alexander Muzah behind his back.
Detailing the sequence of shocking events to B-Metro Tawanda explained that he fulfilled the lobola payment for Rejoice on 23 January 2021.
However, he faced a stipulation from the bride’s father, requiring him not to live with his wife-to-be until after he finished lobola since Rejoice was a virgin.
“I met Rejoice sometime in August 2019 and we got engaged on 10 August 2020. Following our engagement, I informed her of my intention to marry her and she said I could only live with her after I paid lobola. Then on 23 January 2021, I paid US$1 600 as lobola and a further US$500 for groceries, as demanded by her parents for the ceremony.
“Despite this payment, her parents refused to allow me to go with her saying the money which I had paid was not enough since Rejoice was a virgin,” said Tawanda.
He said her parents demanded that he pay additional money before allowing him to take his wife.
“It took me six months to raise another US$820 which I paid on 1 August 2021 after which they allowed me to take their daughter. However, Rejoice only stayed with me for five days, and during those days she refused to have sex with me, as expected in every marital relationship.
“She also wouldn’t let me touch her and when I insisted that we should have sex she packed her bags and left for Bulawayo,” said a jaded-sounding Tawanda.
“As someone who loved his wife, I followed her six times in a period of three months trying to convince her to come and stay with me but she refused. My aunt, grandfather, and grandmother also did the same to no avail”.
Tawanda said he later discovered that his wife was refusing to be intimate with him because she was no longer a virgin and had been engaged to another man.
It is reported that upon further quizzing her that is when she told Tawanda that she was no longer a virgin and she was already engaged to another man.
Tawanda further claimed that he only got to know of Rejoice’s new husband after someone from the family informed him.
“I was surprised to learn that my wife had been married to another man. This happened on 10 December.
“They married her off to another man without giving me Gupuro (divorce token). I am so heartbroken, I do not know what to do.
“I still regard Rejoice as my wife and what pains me is that she once accused me of raping her yet I didn’t even sleep with her.
“Surprisingly they married her off to another man on the grounds that she was a virgin and the man was made to pay US$600 as damages for breaking her virginity,” Tawanda blurted out.
He said all efforts to seek answers from her family and efforts of mediation have hit a snag.
“I tried to peacefully negotiate with her parents for a lobola refund, considering that I did not even stay or have sex with her and that she had committed adultery by being intimate with another man, but my requests were met with resistance and threats from her family,” he said.
He further said Rejoice had since applied for a protection order against him so that he would be barred from communicating with her while requesting his lobola refund.
Contacted for comment Rejoice’s father Norman Nheta couldn’t neither confirm nor deny Tawanda’s claims that he defrauded him by marrying off his wife to another man behind his back.
“He didn’t want to accept that the relationship was finished. If one says she is no longer interested in the relationship I don’t think it is a crime.
“There are ways of communicating if someone says she no longer wants you not to come to her house and cause violence. Why didn’t he go to court or report the matter to the police?” charged Nheta.
Efforts were also made to contact Rejoice but her phone was not reachable.
Muzah however, professed ignorance on the matter.
“There is nothing like that and I don’t know what he is talking about,” tersely said Muzah.
Surprisingly, he acknowledged knowing Rejoice, and when asked about their relationship he abruptly ended the call.
His mother, however, confirmed the incident saying during lobola negotiations Tawanda and his colleagues arrived and interrupted the proceedings.
We heard that she was married to Tawanda on that day we were paying lobola. What happened is that during lobola negotiations Tawanda and his colleagues arrived and interrupted the proceedings.
“We had just paid the damages and the negotiations were stopped when Tawanda started claiming that Rejoice was still his wife. She is pregnant and we are no longer sure if it is our son who is responsible for that pregnancy,” she said.
Tawanda has since filed papers at the Harare Civil Court suing Rejoice’s father so that he reimburses him for his money. B Metro
