A SOUTH AFRICA-BASED Zimbabwean man, popularly known as injiva, last month snatched his estranged wife’s daughter from her grandmother at Sekusile shopping centre in Nkulumane, but the woman’s screams attracted a crowd which rescued the child.
SILAS NKALA STAFF REPORTER
This was heard by Bulawayo Regional Court magistrate Mark Dzira when Caleb Sibanda (39) of Pumula South appeared before him facing charges of assault and kidnapping last week.
Sibanda was married to Sisasenkosi Donga in 1998, but the pair separated in 2010 after the wife gave birth to the daughter, now in dispute, whom she said was not sired by Sibanda. However, the two are still legally married under the Civil Court marriage.
Sibanda told the court that he and Donga are legally married and they all live in South Africa while the child lives in Zimbabwe.
“When our child turned two years, we had planned to take her to South Africa and I had suggested that I would come and take her,” Sibanda said.
“When I asked for the (daughter)’s maternal grandmother’s number so that I could call her, she (Donga) refused to give me. I had to retrieve the grandmother’s number from her mobile phone while she was washing clothes. I phoned the grandmother before May 18 this year. She told me she was in rural Nkayi. I told her I would travel down to Zimbabwe and requested to see the child. She told me that she would be in Bulawayo and advised me to call so that we could meet.”
Sibanda said on the appointed day he called her number and they agreed to meet at Sekusile shopping centre.
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“When I met her with the child and other children, I asked to see my wife’s child and she showed me the child. When I said I wanted to take the child that is when the grandmother told me that the child was not mine. She told me that her son was the father of the child.
“That is when a misunderstanding ensued as I knew that the child was mine. I took the child from her and she started screaming calling the public to assist her.”
Sibanda said he tried to run away, but was apprehended and was assaulted during his arrest by a police officer who requested for his wife’s number and called telling her that her child had been stolen. Sibanda denied kidnapping the child and assaulting the grandmother.
The State led by Tinashe Dzipe called Donga, who said she was in South Africa on the day her daughter was almost abducted.
She said Sibanda and her were married in 1998, but separated due to abuse in September 2010 after she gave birth to the child in question and they are currently living separately.
Donga told the court that the child was not Sibanda’s although she gave birth to her when they were still together.
The magistrate asked her when she informed her husband about the pregnancy and she said when it was four months.
“I told him that the child was not his,” Donga said.
