Hot-head, meddling aunt cut to size
THE old adage:‘dig a hole and spit into it’— was actualised recently when a community court cut to size a divisive and lying Mutasa woman.
It is hoped that she has learnt her lesson, and by spitting into the hole, will never repeat it.
Though Nyasha Machinje Mukwindidza is customarily married, with a matrimonial home in Honde Valley—she vehemently denied this before Chief Mutasa’s community court in a desperate bid to continue meddling in her three brothers’ marriages as the ‘big family aunt’.
This was after her three elderly brothers, Isaiah, Joseph and Collins Machinje had dragged her to the court for neglecting her husband while interfering and rocking their marriages.
Despite spirited denials, Chief Mutasa chided and condemned her actions to forcibly assume the matriarch role in the family, regardless of her being the youngest sibling.Isaiah Machinje said their sister evicted him from their late parents’ homestead in Hamunakwadi Village despite being the rightful heir of the property as per tradition.
“She neglects her husband and children in Honde Valley, comes back home and forcibly assumes the role of the family matriarch. She moved into our mother’s kitchen, and when she goes back to her husband, locks the doors and tells us not to mess with her property.
“She is the youngest in our family, yet we are all scared of her. We suspect she uses juju to weaken us. She challenges everyone.
“She belittles us by calling us‘wives of our spouses’. She now acts like their husbands. Each time she comes home, our wives will be in trouble. She keeps them on their toes, jumping at her orders,” he said.
He said, even when Nyasha is at her home in Honde Valley, she often calls their wives, causing confusion and trouble.“We fear that our wives will divorce us. They are bitter and are always complaining that it seems as if they are married to her than us,” he said.
Isaiah further said Nyasha has made it her duty to pay Mutasa Rural District Council
levies for the homestead he inherited from their late father in line with their traditional norms and culture.
He said, his other brother, Joseph is siding with Nyasha because she promised him a portion of land he wants to cede to his son. Nyasha left the court in stitches when she disputed the assertions that she was married in Honde Valley.She rubbished her brother’s claims that she was married, and challenged him to produce her alleged husband before the court.
“I do not know anyone by the name Mukwindidza. I was once married in Mozambique, but I am back home. I am the one who should stay at the family homestead because I am not married,”she said, but she was left with egg on her face after Village head Hamunakwadi confronted her with evidence to expose her deceit.
He confirmed that Nyasha was indeed married, and her brothers had even received part of her lobola.
“This court should not be fooled by this woman. She is a very good actress. She will make you believe anything.
“She came from Honde Valley where she stays with her husband to attend this court. In fact, when her mother died in 2020, her husband met the funeral costs, and if he hears what she is saying before this court, she will be in trouble,” he said.
Nyasha eventually yielded to the village head’s testimony, admitted she was married and apologised for her actions, much to the chagrin of Chief Mutasa.
“Learn to respect your brothers and your husband. If I was that Mukwindidza guy, I would never take you back as a wife, given that you denied his existence in public. You knew full well that most of these people know your husband, but went on to lie under oath.
“You need to be punished so that next time you will not repeat it. Over and above it, you are meddling in your brothers’marriages and forcibly assuming the role of matriarch,” he said, before ordering her to surrender the homestead keys to Isaiah, and approach Mutasa and correct the ownership of the homestead.
He also fined her a goat for lying under oath. The goat is supposed to be paid on May 15.