Pindula
The High Court has awarded US$5 000 in damages to a Harare man, Cloudio Jume, after his wife, Thelmah Guvakumwe, was convicted of marrying another man, while their marriage still subsisted.
H-Metro reported that Jume had initially demanded US$50 000 for the loss of consortium and conjugal rights and a further US$50 000 for contumelia.
According to an online source, contumelia encompasses the injury, insult and indignity suffered by the plaintiff as a result of the adultery and loss of consortium relates to the loss of comfort society and service of the wife of the husband and as the case may be as a result of the adultery committed by the defendant.
Jume approached the High Court saying his reputation was tarnished, privacy infringed and dignity lost.
However, Justice Emilia Muchawa dismissed the claim for loss of consortium after finding that Jume had no love left for Guvakumwe.
Guvakumwe was convicted of bigamy in December 2022 after marrying her neighbour, Elton Sanyamahwe, and sired a child with him while married to Jume.
Bigamy refers to the act of marrying someone while already being legally married to another person.
The court established that Sanyamahwe was aware of the existence of the marriage between Jume and Guvakumwe when he engaged in an adulterous relationship with her.
Guvakume was fined US$10 000 and made to perform 105 hours of community service at Warren Park 1 Primary School.
The court also found that Jume had divorced or separated from up to three other women. It established that Sanyamahwe was dishonest in his defence after denying fathering the child.
Jume and Guvakumwe married in March 2014 before solemnising their marriage in September 2017 in terms of the Marriages Act (Chapter 5:11).
Their marriage was dissolved on 16 March last year after Jume found out about the adulterous affair.
Justice Muchawa found it a common cause that Guvakumwe was still married to Jume in September 2021 when she started becoming intimate with Sanyamahwe.
Guvakumwe claimed she met Sanyamahwe at a bar after her break-up, drugged him and the two became intimate.
Sanyamahwe claimed he was raped after a night out as he had woken up naked in a bar.
Jume told the court that he was made to believe that his wife had secured a job in Chegutu while she was in the neighbourhood with Sanyamahwe.
In her ruling, Justice Muchawa said:
The totality of the evidence, however, shows that Jume was a philandering man who was married to a woman 24 years his junior, who was one in a row of up to three others whom he had divorced or separated from.
He even boasted that married men go out for a good time with many other women and it is okay. It only becomes a problem when the women do likewise.
Sanyamahwe is alleged to have been boasting that Jume’s wife had left him because of his small manhood and he was better able to satisfy her.
He was alleged not to be remorseful.
In Zimbabwe, the Marriages Act, which came into operation on 16 September 2022, introduced a civil partnership and a qualified civil marriage and recognises an unregistered customary law union as a marriage.
Under the Marriages Act, the types of marriages are Civil Marriage (one man, one wife), Registered Customary law union ((one man, potentially many wives), Unregistered Customary law union (one man, potentially many wives), Qualified Civil marriage (civil marriage which is polygamous or potentially polygamous), and Civil Partnership (which is not recognised as a marriage, but only recognised to determine rights upon dissolution of the relationship).
