High court has ruled that women should refund full lobola if she is caught cheating on her husband.
This was confirmed in a 2015 ruling made by Justice Hlekani Mwayera and Justice Tendai Uchena.
In the case, Liberty Machodo discovered that his wife had cheated on him on multiple occasions with multiple people who included his elder and younger brothers, a nephew and a herd boy.
After learning of this gross betrayal and breach of the marriage contract, Machodo sent his wife packing and divorced her.
This did not go down well with the cheating wife’s father Chikudza Fanuel Mangwende, who sued his former son-in-law at the Magistrate’s Court demanding the outstanding balance for the lobola.
During the trial at the Magistrate’s Court, it was revealed that the adulterous affairs came to light after the couple’s newborn baby refused to breastfeed.
Both Machodo and his ex-wife told the court that the baby only started breastfeeding after the mother had made a full confession of her adulterous shenanigans.
She confessed that she had indeed carried out numerous adulterous affairs with Machodo’s brothers, nephew and herd boy.
The magistrate ruled that due to this breach, her father was not entitled to any outstanding balance of the lobola payment.
The magistrate went on to rule that under customary law, a man who would have paid lobola is entitled to a full refund if the wife engages in adultery.
The court also found that customarily a husband is allowed to divorce an adulterous wife and then if he has paid lobola in full he is entitled to a refund of the lobola from the in laws.
