Man (34) forced to marry a goat

A Chirumanzu man (34) has approached the police seeking help as the owners of a goat he allegedly sexually abused are reportedly demanding that he "marries" it.

The incident that has left tongues wagging among the Chirumanzu community occurred on Wednesday.
Sources close to the incident said the man, identified only as Mr Dziva, was allegedly caught sexually abusing a goat belonging to the Sithole family of the same area on Wednesday night.

The sources said the Sithole family then took the goat to Mr Dziva's homestead where they reportedly dumped it and demanded that he pays "lobola" for the beast.

"This was not the first time that Mr Dziva has been caught red-handed being intimate with the neighbour's goats. He, however, got himself into trouble this time when the Sithole family then decided to dump their goat at Siziba's (Dziva) home after they caught him abusing it.

"They are demanding that he pays lobola and take the goat as his wife," said the source.

The source said Mr Dziva was assaulted by the Sithole family members when he was caught abusing their goat.

"He then admitted that he has been abusing the same goat for some time.

"They then dumped the goat at Mr Dziva's homestead and demanded that he pays lobola and marry the animal," said the source.

He said after negotiations to solve the matter between the Dziva and Sithole families collapsed, Mr Dziva approached police at Mvuma Police Station on Friday to have the matter resolved.

"The police later advised Mr Dziva to approach the local chief to have the matter resolved after the Sithole family refused to budge.

"The matter has since been reported to the village head, Mr Aaron Magogodza, who is now supposed to take it further to Chief Chirumanzu," said the source.

Mr Dziva who, however, denied that he was caught being intimate with the goat, confirmed that he was keeping the goat which was dumped at his homestead.

"It's only suspicion, I was not caught red-handed but they (Sithole family) claim that their goat is pregnant and they are demanding that I pay for that," he said yesterday.

He confirmed that the matter was now supposed to be taken to Chief Chirumanzu and that he was found in the Sithole family's goat pen.

"If they found me in there (goat pen), does that mean I was being intimate with their goat?" asked Mr Dziva when he was pressed to comment.

Mr Magogodza confirmed handling the matter and said he had since briefed Chief Chirumanzu about the matter.

"The chief is now aware of the matter and we are only waiting for him to give a court date for the case," he said.

Efforts to secure comment from the Sithole family were fruitless yesterday.