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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter
A 23-YEAR-OLD man from Lubimbi in Dete who was dragged to court for having sexual intercourse with a young person has claimed that his in-laws are fixing him because he failed to pay a cow, goat and chicken as lobola. Isaac Tshuma of Kavunikwa Village under Chief Kavula was 21 when he started cohabiting and having sex with the girl who was 14 in 2012.

The court heard that the girl’s parents covered up the issue when she fell pregnant and nurses advised her to make a report to the police. The parents allegedly demanded lobola instead. Tshuma and the juvenile, the court heard, started having sex a week after bumping into each other until the girl fell pregnant. They are now living together as husband and wife.

According to the country’s laws, the age of consent to sex is 16 years. Tshuma pleaded guilty to the crime when he appeared before Hwange magistrate Portia Mhlanga on Wednesday but claimed his in-laws wanted to fix him for not paying them.

He said the juvenile seduced him. “She lured me with her body movements and the way she smiled at me. She was showing that she wanted me,” said Tshuma when quizzed why he committed the crime. He added: “I plead with the court to have mercy on me as I’m now married to the complainant and paid lobola for her. As it stands, I owe my in-laws one cow, one goat and a chicken but they’re still demanding more.”

Tshuma was lucky after the magistrate suspended passing of sentence for five years. Prosecuting, Charlene Gorerino told how Tshuma and his teenage wife started cohabiting in 2012. “On August 2 in 2012, the accused met the complainant who was coming from the borehole to fetch water and proposed love. She accepted,” said the prosecutor.

She said the two met again seven days later and had sex. “On August 9 at 7PM, Tshuma took the girl to his homestead where she spent the night. They started living together and from that day to August 29, they had sex with the complainant’s consent.”

The court was told that on August 29, Tshuma left the teenage wife at his homestead as he went to look for a job. Tshuma did not return home and in October, his wife who was already pregnant, packed her belongings and returned to her parents’ homestead.

On October 5, the court heard, she went to Lubimbi Clinic for a pregnancy test. Said Gorerino: “She was then advised by clinic staff to make a report to the police because of her age. However, her parents demanded lobola from Tshuma so he could marry their daughter and the case was not followed up.”