The woman, Loveness Sherekete, allegedly got married to
Derrick Ndebele (66) from Hillcrest suburb who is reportedly still married to
his first wife Catherine Rice Mashakada (57) from Burnside suburb.
The matter came to light following the arrest of Ndebele
and his subsequent appearance in court charged with bigamy as defined in
Section 104 (1) (a) of the Criminal Law (Codification and Reform) Act Chapter
9:23.
Ndebele was not asked to plead and was remanded out of
custody to today (2 September).
Allegations against Ndebele are that he married Loveness
while his marriage with Catherine was still legally subsisting.
Court records show that Ndebele and Catherine got married
on 9 March 1986, under a monogamous marriage in terms of the Marriages Act
Chapter 37 at Gwanda Magistrates Court.
The marriage still subsists and the couple had three
children who are all above the age of 18 now.
It is reported that sometime in 2003, as per agreement
between the two parties, Catherine left the country for work in the United
Kingdom, leaving her husband behind with their children at their house in
Waterford suburb.
In 2004, Ndebele reportedly followed his wife to the UK
with their three children and he stayed for almost a month before he came back
with one of the children.
When he came back, Ndebele reportedly sold their
matrimonial house in Waterford and bought another one in Hillcrest and Catherine
was privy to that.
It is further reported that sometime in 2006 Ndebele fell
in love with Loveness and the two started staying together in Hillcrest suburb
as “husband and wife”.
It is yet to be proven that the two parties – Ndebele and
Loveness – went through both Shona and Ndebele customary marriage practices and
two ceremonies were held in Harare and Tsholotsho respectively.
The first ceremony was held at Loveness’ parents’ house in
Budiriro, in Harare and the second ceremony was held at Ndebele’s father’s
homestead in Mvundlana Village under Chief Ngqoya in Tsholotsho as per Ndebele
culture.
Investigations at the Civil Registry Department revealed
that Catherine’s husband and Loveness had a child together who was born on 31
March 2010.
The State alleges that Ndebele committed an offence of
bigamy since he knew that his monogamous marriage with Catherine did not allow
him to enter into any other form of marriage.
That subsequently led to his arrest. B Metro
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