A Chivi woman gave her husband her 10-year-old niece to save her
marriage after she was caught pants down with another man in her
village.
Susan Zanga, 42, and her husband, Agrippa Batirai, 47, of Chief
Gororo near Ngundu in Chivi, appeared before Masvingo magistrate Judith
Ziya facing charges of child abuse and rape respectively.
Zanga told the
court that she only gave her husband the niece as payment for her
infidelity but warned him against being intimate with her before she
reaches the legal age.
The husband is however, facing several counts of rape after he raped
the orphan since she was in Grade Four in 2008.
Prosecutor Sophia
Busvumani told the court that sometime in 2008, Zanga gave her late
brother's daughter to her husband as a second wife after she was caught
red-handed being intimate with another man.
The court further heard the arrangement was made after a traditional
meeting by the couple's relatives was convened to resolve Zanga's case
of infidelity.
During the meeting, she apologised for doing wrong to her husband and
subsequently offered the girl as compensation.
This came to light last
year when the girl was in and locals gave police a tip-off about the
abuse.
The court also heard before the police discovered the crime, the
girl had reported the case to her aunt who lived nearby but she
dismissed her and accused her of trying to create stories to avoid going
to school.
However, sometime last year, a police sergeant Sophia Munhundiripo
tracked the girl to school and questioned her but she did not cooperate.
Police officers however, tasked the girl's teacher to do counselling
and child abuse lessons for her class, causing the girl to open up to
her teacher.
The teacher alerted Sergeant Munhundiripo, leading to the arrest of the couple.
The wife, however, conceded during the beginning of trial on Monday
but said she ordered the husband to wait for her green light when the
girl reached the appropriate age.
The husband is pleading not guilty arguing that he had been given the girl as her wife traditionally by her cheating aunt.
africanseer
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