Man offers son-in-law $10 000 to divorce daughter

A BULAWAYO man from Nkulumane 5 high-density suburb has offered to reimburse his alleged wife-bashing son-in-law a whopping US$10 000 in lobola and wedding costs, to sway him into giving in to his daughter’s petition for them to divorce.
The man, Mr Jacob Ngwenya (49), who owns a fleet of commuter omnibuses that transport people to South Africa and ply local routes, confirmed that he offered to pay his son-in-law, Mr Nkululeko Dube (30), money to convince him to dissolve his marriage to Mrs Jessica Ngwenya-Dube (25), the man’s daughter.
Mr Dube is alleged to be abusive and gives his wife a hard time as he frequently abuses her physically and emotionally. When the alleged abuse turns violent, Mrs Dube runs away from her matrimonial home in Pumula South high-density suburb and seek refuge at her father’s house.
The abuse is said to have got out of hand at the beginning of March, forcing Mrs Dube to deny Mr Dube conjugal rights in an attempt to make him stop the abuse. But Mrs Dube’s strategy backfired as Mr Dube did not relent but allegedly brought home a prostitute and chucked his wife out of their bedroom, forcing her to sleep at a neighbour’s house.
The morning after the heartrending incident, Mrs Dube went back to her matrimonial home after her husband had left for work, packed her bags and without looking back went to her father’s house for good.
Mr Dube did not attempt to beg for forgiveness from his wife and did not respond to his father-in-law’s summons. Mr Dube’s disrespectful attitude hardened his wife’s resolve to dissolve the marriage and did not go down well with Mr Ngwenya who initially wanted to save his daughter’s marriage.


Mr Dube is said to have finally had the heart, a month later, in April to approach his wife and father-in-law, begging to be forgiven for his transgressions but he was too late as Mrs Dube had already made up her mind and convinced her father to support her in her decision to divorce.
Mr Dube, however, refused to grant his wife divorce for the sole reason that he “owned her’’ as he spent a fortune on her through the bride price and wedding ceremony which he estimated cost him US$10 000.
“When he said that he thought he was finding a loophole to save his marriage, I offered to give him back his money. He thinks he owns my daughter because he spent US$10 000 on her. US$10 000 is nothing but change to me so I will give him back his money,’’ said Mr Ngwenya.
Mr Ngwenya said he had every intention to save his daughter’s marriage but had washed his hands after Mr Dube chose to ignore his summons.