Stepmum caught red-handed with hubby's best friend

A CHITUNGWIZA woman who slipped out of her house during the night in the absence of her husband was caught red-handed by her stepson with her husband's best friend before they both took to the heels.

This emerged at the Chitungwiza Civil Court on Thursday where Tongai Sande (44), a police officer stationed at St Mary's Police Station, is claiming $8 000 in damages from his best friend and workmate Simbarashe Tayengwa, whom he is accusing of engaging in an adulterous affair with his wife.

Sande's 20-year-old son, who caught Tayengwa with his stepmother, told presiding magistrate Musaiona Shotgame that after realising that his mother had sneaked out of the house around 2100 hours, they, together with his nephew, decided to go and look for her.

"Earlier in the day, my nephew had seen a message on my stepmother's phone from Tayengwa asking if my father had left. Since it was a holiday, we thought maybe she had gone to Chikwanha where all the fun is, but along the way, we saw Tayengwa's kombi parked at a certain house and decided to snoop and see who was inside.

"Before we could take a look inside the kombi, Tayengwa and my stepmother got out of the house and as soon as they recognised us, he (Tayengwa) shoved my mother against the wall, but they both then took to the heels and escaped through the fence," Sande's son said.

He added when she finally came home, she started threatening to commit suicide.

Sande filed his papers through his lawyers Mutsahuni Chikore and Partners, seeking damages for "the embarrassment, personal distress and loss of comfort" from his wife and society as a result of the affair.

Sande, who resides in the same neighbourhood with Tayengwa and works at the same police station, told the court that he has known the defendant (Tayengwa) since his childhood.

"My son and nephew phoned me about the incident when I was in Bulawayo and when I got back, I talked to the person who gave them accommodation where they did the act and my wife even admitted to having committed adultery.

"Prior to this incident, everything was OK between me and my wife and Tayengwa is my closest friend, and now everyone in our neighbourhood and at work place knows about the affair," he told magistrate Shotgame.

Tayengwa, however, rubbished the claims, saying that on the day in question, he was attending to a breakdown in Macheke and that Sande's son was merely fabricating a story against his stepmother as the two were not in good books.

Magistrate Shotgame postponed the matter to November 27.