The Sunday Mail
Roselyne Sachiti
Assistant Editor
He now lives a secluded life with Paramount, one of the six children he sired years back when he had an incestuous relationship with “his first-born daughter” Tavonga.
At his homestead, nestled between huge trees, shrubs and rocks in Tazvigwira Village, Chief Mapanzure area, Masvingo, Chamunorwa Tazvigwira (65), who did time in prison after being found guilty of incest, has become a social outcast.
The community has clearly failed to forgive him and they closely monitor his every move. In 2009, he admitted in court to siring six children with his first-born daughter Tavonga, saying “I am a hen that has eaten its eggs”.
He was convicted and sentenced to five years in prison. Two years later, Tazvigwira — a model prisoner — was freed and returned to his rural home.
“There was no one to welcome me when I returned home. I last saw my wife of 29 years, who I have 10 children with, during my sentencing in 2009,” he said.
His home was deserted.
The thatched roof was giving in, his kitchen hut was empty — not even a spoon remained — as his wife had carried everything, including blankets.
Following Tazvigwira’s incarceration, Tavonga also immediately left the homestead. She left children born out of the incestuous relationship in the care of Tazvigwira’s elderly mother, who struggled to look after them.
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Tavonga is believed to be living somewhere in Mashava; no one really knows where exactly. At his homestead, Tazvigwira hears voices and emerges from his kitchen hut to speak to The Sunday Mail.
The expression on his face is clear that he is not expecting any visitors.
No one visits him, at all.
If anything, the entrance to his home is not welcoming.
One has to jump over a tightly secured wooden barricade, which does not open.
He immediately identifies me and loosens up. I had visited him and his family several times back in 2009 when he was arrested for incest. Tazvigwira opens up, saying his relationship with Tavonga was consensual, yet society continues to judge him harshly years after the incident.
He says they fail to appreciate that prison rehabilitated him. He also now claims Tavonga is not his biological daughter as his wife was already pregnant when she eloped in 1979.
He has not taken any deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) test to prove this, but says his late mother-in-law confirmed Tavonga was not his child, and he believed her.
“My ex-wife was already pregnant when she eloped in 1979. In many cases people elope when pregnant and I thought Tavonga was my child. My ex-wife’s mother was always against my marriage and we had serious problems,” he reveals.
He vividly recalls how his former wife packed her bags each time the couple had a misunderstanding and would go to her mother’s homestead for days.
“Sometimes her mother would even knock on our bedroom door at night to take her to their homestead, leaving me alone. I became lonely,” he complains.
The situation worsened the other nine times Tavonga’s mother fell pregnant.
“Each time my ex-wife fell pregnant, my mother-in-law would get angry at me. Confrontations were the order of day.
“She clearly said she did not want her daughter to stay with me yet I always made her pregnant. When she eloped, the mother followed the same day. This was during the 1979 ceasefire.”
He further claims the relationship was toxic such that he had to control himself.
“This is when Tavonga and I got close as we would spend a lot of time alone at home.
“The chemistry grew and we spoke and fell in love since she is not my biological daughter. If anything, I had taken care of her thinking she was my child,” he reveals.
Under his ex-wife’s nose, Tazvigwira would become intimate with Tavonga, and they had their first child Nomsa in 1996. In years that followed, more children were sired.
“I did not rape Tavonga; we agreed to have a relationship which gave us kids. I was angry at my wife and mother-in-law, who told me Tavonga, now a teenager, was not my biological daughter. Some maternal relatives also abused Tavonga and I asked my mother-in-law why she allowed this.”
Premonitions
In late 2007, Tazvigwira said he started having weird dreams. A voice relayed some cryptic messages he had to follow.
“A year and a half before my arrest, I had a dream. In the dream, a voice told me to admit to what was coming.
“The following morning, I asked myself what this meant. This issue had previously been dealt with at family level and closed, but strangely the dream emphasised that I should not deny if they come. I wondered who was coming.”
When the police arrested him, he claims he did what the voice from the dream told him and was co-operative, admitting to everything in court.
“The police then came and spoke to me. I admitted and told them Tavonga and I stay together and have children,” he adds.
Some not mine
The children from the incestuous relationship are all grown up.
The first-born, Nomsa, is now married.
Her bride price was paid to Tazvigwira.
Paramount, who was born in 2004, stays with Tazvigwira and does piece jobs for other villagers. Accuracy, who was born in 2006, is with her mother. Tazvigwira also now claims the other three children —Talent, Temptation and another whose name he does not remember, and were born in-between the incestuous relationship — are not his.
The village rascal?
In their village, Tazvigwira says he is seen as a rascal and has been accused of several crimes from the time he returned from prison.
He says people in their village have failed to forget the past, making his life difficult.
“I get angry and sad but control myself and always remember what I was taught at Mutimurefu Prison. I keep quiet.”
More arrests
In 2018, Tazvigwira was back at the courts. This time he stood accused of raping a villager’s daughter. The courts acquitted him and he returned to the village.
“I was surprised why the villagers badly wanted me back in prison. They hate me and won’t listen to what I say. They dislike me because I work in my garden and field,” he says.
He was also arrested after another report was made accusing him of abusing his daughter, Accuracy.
“I was arrested and taken to Muchakata Police base. I asked what I had done. They said, ‘Someone reported that you are raping your child, Accuracy.’
“I was shocked since I had just returned home from prison.”
Again Tazvigwira was freed as he was found not guilty of the alleged crime, yet the accusations continued. At one time, he was also accused of waylaying and molesting passers-by.
“I was coming from a beer drink and they said I hid and waylaid girls to fondle them. I was arrested again yet I had not done any of that. I was released when it turned out to be lies.”
Then in another incident, he claims another villager, a relative, told him he would be arrested before year-end.
“They wanted me to stay in prison forever. The police are always surprised each time they see me back at the station to answer to new charges.
“They say ‘mudhara, you are back again.’ Police advised me to keep to myself and avoid beer gatherings. I surrender everything to God,” he notes.
Cleansing
Tazvigwira revealed he has not done any cleansing ceremony after the incestuous relationship.
“Long back, they would ask for cows for cleansing, but now you just talk to each other and agree. I have not paid anything for the cleansing as yet.”
His family is broken.
Tazvigwira’s 90-year-old mother died recently and what worries him is none of his 10 children from the first marriage attended the funeral. He has advice for Zimbabweans — The truth always catches up with wrongdoers.
“Let’s learn that your child is your child. Another person’s child is also yours.
“But when I was being tormented by my wife and her mother, I failed dismally at valuing this.
“What happened to me should never happen to anyone.
“Let’s live well and not behave the way I did.”
He says he has learnt his lesson. Life is hard; food and blankets are hard to come by.
He hopes one day the community will forgive and understand that he is a changed man.
He also hopes to live amicably with them and be forgiven by his children.
