A man from Navata area in Zhombe, Kwekwe, died after he allegedly slept with three married women and one was suspected to have been ‘fenced’ using a charm, known as runyoka/ulunyoka in local languages.
Runyoka (Shona) or ulunyoka (Ndebele) is an indigenous way of ‘fencing’ or ‘locking’ a spouse, usually wives, to prevent them from committing adultery, and it is done without her knowledge.
A local chief told 98.4FM News that the deceased had earlier approached his court seeking to compensate the wronged men and be relieved of the disease burden caused by the charm. Chief Wait Gwesela of Zhombe, who did not reveal the deceased`s name, said the man told the court that he had slept with three married men and suspected that one of them had been ‘locked’ by her husband.
“I actually presided over the case and it involved a man who approached my court and confessed that he had slept with three married women. He asked the court to summon the women he had slept with together with their husbands so that the court hears the matter,” he said.
Chief Gwesela said he summoned all the parties to his court to hear the matter and probe the allegations of runyoka/ ulunyoka. He said one of the men whose wife the deceased allegedly slept with is the son of a local village head, and he was suspected to have been the one who had cast the ‘locking’ spell on his spouse.
“We questioned the village head`s son, who is called Winston Nyoni, if he was the one who had put runyoka on his wife. I also questioned all the three women the deceased man claimed to have slept with and they all denied any knowledge of it,” said the chief.
Chief Gwesela said he ordered the man to pay 3 cows to Nyoni as compensation for bedding his wife and he complied with the court ruling.
He added: “We assisted the man to get help from traditional healers and he got better for some time but his health started deteriorating and he died. The matter is very sad and imagine that none of the three women admitted to sleeping with the man, despite him insisting that he had slept with them.”