Widow (aged 49) wants 3 cattle from ex (aged 37) who left her after 13 years of cohabitation

A 49-year-old woman from Rusape has taken her former partner, 12 years her junior, to a traditional court, seeking three cattle or US$1,000 in compensation for allegedly reneging on a promise to marry her after 13 years of cohabitation.

Lainah Twakali brought her ex-partner, George Chipunda, 37, before Chief Makoni’s community court. She accused him of promising marriage, wasting her time, and abandoning her after more than a decade together.

The couple first met at a farm in Headlands in 2013. Their relationship did not produce any children.

Twakali, a widow with five children and 12 grandchildren, told the court that Chipunda, who she said had been through four failed marriages, proposed to her and assured her of marriage despite being aware of her background.

She said she moved in with him and supported him throughout the years, believing his pledge to marry her would be honoured.

“I stayed with Chipunda for 13 years after he promised to marry me. He did not fulfil his promise all these years, and that is why I brought this case before the court,” Twakali said. “He also sold all the property we acquired while staying together.”

Twakali told the court that the couple had worked together on farms in Headlands, developed their homestead, built a house and installed a borehole.

She said his family was aware of the relationship and that, at his parents’ encouragement, they had moved back to the village to protect their stand from invasion.

In response, Chipunda filed a counter-claim, arguing that it was Twakali who had wasted his time.

He alleged that she had a habit of faking pregnancies and disputed owing her anything, telling the court that they had already divided the property fairly.

“May this court ask this woman to produce her national identity card and see the age difference between us? I stayed with her from 2013 to 2026,” he said.

“Staying with this woman was more of force, ndakaitwa kumbunyikidzwa. I am the same age as her firstborn. She has five children and 12 grandchildren.

“This woman destroyed the house I had built and took the roofing sheets.”

He even claimed she used his young age to cling on to him after he found her working on a Headlands farm.

“She would claim she was pregnant, and I would buy all the preparations, only to discover that she was lying. I will abide by the court’s ruling, but this woman wasted my time. She is 12 years older than me, and I need the court’s help,” said Chipunda.

Chipunda told the court that when the couple separated, they divided their property equally in the presence of police special constabulary officers.

He said Twakali took several goats and some roofing sheets, while he sold two pigs the pair had owned because he could no longer afford feed costs.

In his ruling, Chief Makoni found that the parties had been cohabiting and that the evidence did not show that either had wasted the other’s time.

He ordered Chipunda to give Twakali US$120 or a pig, and to pay her costs of suit, amounting to US$45.

The Chief added that the question of a divorce token did not arise, as the two were never married but were “just boyfriend and girlfriend”. *_-Pindula_*