Her mother learnt of the developments after reading H-Metro
and immediately went looking for her. They
separated when the parents broke up and the father assumed custody while the
mother went away while she was barely two years old.
Narrating her visit to Tandi Village in Rusape, the woman
thanked H-Metro for exposing the child marriage that emotionally and sexually
affected her child saying the girl was now in her custody.
“I was touched to read that my daughter had been abused to
the extent of being forced into marriage,” she said.
“The H-Metro story was clear to direct me to where my
daughter was given in marriage and I confronted Tapiwa and his parents.
“I discovered that my daughter was forced into marriage to
Tapiwa who was in another relationship with a girl he and his parents wanted
him to marry.
“I was forced to leave my daughter while she was one year
three months old when I separated with her father.
“To this day my daughter has no birth certificate and her
father is not forthcoming in terms of facilitating her to acquire a birth
certificate.
“We signed a document with the in-laws as evidence that I
took my daughter from them to avoid issues that I stole her.
“The grandparents learnt about my actions but wanted to
protect their relationship with Chitsumba family arguing that if Tapiwa got arrested
it would affect them. As we speak Tapiwa is yet to taste the course of
justice,” said the mother.
In an interview, the minor’s grandmother Gogo Rebecca who
gave her into marriage said Tapiwa vowed to pay lobola and educate the girl
until she is grown up for marriage.
“The girl was taken by her mother to Mutare from Tapiwa and
I was not there,” said Gogo Rebecca. Tapiwa told us that he still loves his
wife and will meet her education expenses while in the custody of the mother.
“Asi tsvakirai kuno haasati abvisa zvake,” she said. Tapiwa’s
mobile calls went unanswered as well as his father John Chitsumba’s call.
The minor, besides the sexual harassment she underwent, was
verbally abused by her alleged mother-in-law Spiwe Kubocha describing her as a
whirl wind that would pass.
The minor is yet to acquire a birth certificate and her
father could not be reached for comment. H Metro
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