Family demands 10 beasts from in-laws to bury co-habiting daughter

TWO families from Gwanda District are locked in a burial wrangle with one demanding 10 cattle from their in-laws in order to bury their daughter who was co-habiting with her boyfriend.

Thamsanqa Ndlovu (23) of Gobadema area in Gwanda South had been cohabiting with the now deceased, Christine Ndlovu (21), believed to be from Mberengwa, for the past two years without the knowledge of his in-laws. The two had a four-month-old baby.

Christine died at Gwanda Provincial Hospital last week after a short illness and her body is still at Gwanda mortuary, as the two families continue to squabble. The couple's baby has been left under the care of the hospital nurses.

On Friday last week, Chronicle caught up with Ndlovu's family at Gwanda Town when they were coming from the meeting with their in-laws at Colleen Bawn. The family spokesperson, Mr Million Sibanda, said their in-laws had made them pay $40 to speak to them (isivulamlomo) and went on to demand the payment of 10 beasts before the burial could take place.

"It's so unfortunate that our daughter-in-law has passed on, but now we are in deep trouble as our in-laws are demanding 10 beasts to bury her. This is just impossible and absurd because we don't have what they are demanding. As you can see, we don't know what else to do, we tried to reason with them, but they are just not willing to listen to us. They treated us like dogs," he said.

The husband, Ndlovu could not say much about the problem saying that he had surrendered everything to his family as he had no power to deal with the crisis.

"I am not working and where will I get 10 beasts from? I have surrendered everything to my relatives," he said.

Businessman and Ward 11 Councillor Witness Sebata said Ndlovu's family had reported th matter to him with the hope that the problem would be solved. He said he had spoken to both families but Christine's family had not been co-operative on dealing with the issue.

"I have spoken to the two families and realised that relatives of the deceased are just being unfair. The problem here is the clash in cultures and this matter should be dealt with taking into consideration that there are different cultures at play. I believe Ndlovu's family has been burdened because the demands are just impossible. It seems the relatives of the deceased don't even care about their daughter, but are just after punishing their in-laws. We have been trying to deal with this problem for a week now and I believe that if this problem continues, the state will just have to intervene. The girl's family has indicated that if their in-laws have no cattle they should pay $5 000 and cater for the cost of feeding the mourners," said Clr Sebata.

Contacted for comment, a member of Christine's family said: "I cannot talk to you. You can talk to the elders."

Acting police spokesperson Sergeant Loveness Mangena said they had not yet received a report on the matter.