Adultery damages, lecturer loses property worth $3 000

A NATIONAL University of Science and Technology (Nust) lecturer, David Foya, has lost movable property at his house in Parklands to foot $3 000 adultery damages to the husband of a female student he bedded during her time at the institution.

Foya, a lecturer with the Faculty of Business Studies, had a sexual relationship with his married student, Judith Moyo.

After discovering his wife's adultery, Moyo's husband, Bongani Ngulube, approached the Bulawayo High Court seeking $40 000 damages but Justice Martin Makonese only granted him $3 000.

In his ruling, Justice Makonese said the amount Ngulube was asking for was too much and in terms of case laws the highest amount which was given as damages for adultery in the country was only $5 000.

Ngulube was awarded $2 500 for contumelia damages (a deliberately offensive act or something producing the effect of deliberate disrespect) and $500 being damages for loss of consortium.

The judgment came after Ngulube had applied for a default judgment against Foya after the lecturer reportedly failed to file his plea in the stipulated time in terms of the High Court rules.

However, on 4 November he obtained a writ of execution giving him the green light to attach Foya's movable property at his house.

"To the Sheriff of Zimbabwe or his Lawful Deputy. You are required and directed to take into execution the movable property of David Foya of 16325 Parklands Mews, Parklands, Bulawayo, of the same cause to be realised the sum of $3 000 (three thousand dollars) for the above mentioned Plaintiff (Ngulube) which it recovered by Judgement of this court dated the 1st of October 2015, and also other costs and charges of the Plaintiff in the said suit besides your costs thereby incurred. Further, pay the to the said plaintiff or his Legal Practitioners the sum or sums due to it with costs as above mentioned and for your so doing shall be your warrant," read the writ.

Ngulube had said he had lost love, warmth and affection for his wife because of Foya.

He also declared in his papers that he lost the support and "services" of his wife as a result of her romantic affair with the lecturer.

The judgment came at a time when Nust recently crafted a gender policy that addresses the issue of sexual harassment of students by lecturers at the institution.

Details of the affair were exposed after Ngulube stumbled upon a string of messages on his wife's WhatsApp application which she was exchanging with Foya.

In some of the chats, Foya, demanded "hot, sexy" sessions with Ngulube's wife.

Some of the WhatsApp messages which Ngulube filed in court as evidence are that of Foya and Moyo inviting each other for sex and deciding where to be intimate.

In his suit, Ngulube declared that he was still married to Moyo adding that Foya fell in love with his wife when she was his student at Nust.

"The defendant (Foya) has ridiculed and laughed at the plaintiff (Ngulube) in public on diverse occasions and the affair has caused plaintiff much discomfort and pain. The plaintiff has been greatly humiliated and demeaned by the defendant's conduct, which conduct has embarrassed plaintiff among his friends, family and members of his church," reads part of his court papers.