In a disturbing development, a widow was left homeless after a jilted man burned down her home in retaliation after her son had impregnated and snatched his wife.

The incident happened in Zengeya Village under Chief Nyajena. The publication has learnt from TellZim that Elias Mazonde burned down the houses in anger, because the family of the man who had snatched his wife, had been late in giving him five cattle as compensation.

According to sources who spoke to the publication, Elias Mazonde’s wife took advantage of the fact that he is based in South Africa, to carry out an adulterous affair with Wellington Machemedze. Despite being caught red-handed numerous times, the two continued with their affair.

It was also revealed that since the Mazonde and Machemedze families are related, Elias and Wellington are brothers in Shona culture.

One source told the publication,

“The two were caught by the locals on many occasions but the affair continued until the woman fell pregnant. When the pregnancy was about four months, Mazonde asked his wife to come to South Africa and she took Machemedze along and both stayed with Mazonde in South Africa where they secretly carried on with their adulterous affair.

“The two then tried to terminate the pregnancy but Mazonde would soon find out and quiz his wife about it. She then confessed everything and the two later escaped after Mazonde had thoroughly beaten them,”

Machemedze later fled to an unknown location after Mazonde had managed to track him down to his elder brother’s home in South Africa, where he assaulted him again.

After failing to track down Machemedze again, Mazonde returned home and demanded R28 000 from the Machemedze family for their relative’s misdeeds. The family agreed to compensate Mazonde with 5 cattle for the shame they had caused him.

However, after several weeks without receiving the cattle, Mazonde took the matter into his own hands and burned down Mai Machemedze’s homestead.

Chief Nyajena, who is the traditional leader for the area, said that he has since referred the matter to the police.

“We had an incident whereby a widow, Mai Machemedze, was left without shelter after a neighbour burnt down her home in retaliation that the widow’s son Wellington Machemedze had taken his wife.

“If these people had come to me, I could have made sure that the cattle were paid in time and I could have provided some counselling,”