Saturday 31 August 2024

FATHER, SON REUNITE IN JAIL


A father has re-united with his son in prison after 27 years. The two are incarcerated at Khami Maximum Prison, on the outskirts of Bulawayo for multiple robbery and rape cases.

Tafadzwa Hove last saw his father Biggy Dube when he was five years old But a through a relative who knew both while in the confines of the high prison walls brought them together

Hove said in an interview with The Sunday News : “I was arrested for 15 counts of robbery in 2016 and I spent some time at Zvishavane Prison. My life of crime was motivated by poverty. I was sentenced in 2018 to 369 years, the sentence was later reduced and I remained with 91 years. Later on, I was summoned to the courts where it was further reduced and I am now serving an effective 50-year prison term. I will be out in 2055.

“I grew up with relatives from my mother’s side in Mberengwa because my father and mother separated when I was only five and my mother later died. I, however, met my father’s younger brother at Chikurubi Maximum Prison in Harare where I had gone for some processes and he told me that my father was at Khami where I was. It was the first time I saw him since he left me, but I used to see his pictures, which enabled me to recognise him when I met him physically in 2019.

“I was happy to meet him because I had been told he had died as no one was aware of his whereabouts. When I met him in 2019 it was bittersweet, I had to be moved to Hwahwa Prison in Gweru. I was hurt that I grew up suffering, I used to walk to school and failed to even complete my education because of hardships, but he was there. He was also hurt such that he could not talk to me in the initial days and would spend days crying. This then led to me being transferred briefly to Hwahwa and I then came back and the pain is better now for both of us.

“I was a pastor at the Church of Christ, the man that you saw is indeed my son, he was born in 1988 after I had completed my Advanced Level studies at Dadaya Mission in 1986. Five years later, we separated with his mother as she did not want to be in a polygamous marriage as I had a senior wife then who is also a pastor now. So, Tafadzwa and his mother went to Mberengwa where she comes from.

“I had fallen in love with my administrator at my company in Bulawayo and my wife said I had raped the lady. This is because I had spent seven months without going back home in Bikita where she was staying. I was sentenced to 18 years in prison and two were suspended so I am serving 16 years effectively and hope to be released in July 2029,” said Dube.

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