Two cousins were on Thursday fined ZWL$40 000 each by a magistrate after they pleaded guilty to incest.
Incest refers to sexual relations between people classed as being too closely related to marry each other.
Josphat Muswati (28) and Jaqueline Kamwendo (22) pleaded guilty when they appeared before Harare regional magistrate, Gloria Takundwa.
Takundwa fined them $40 000 each, plus a wholly suspended sentence of 14 months in prison.
Prosecutors told the court that Muswati and Kamwendo are second-line cousins in the sense that Muswati’s father and Kamwendo’s grandfather are brothers who share the same parents.
The court heard that sometime in July 2020, Kamwendo visited her uncle Muswati at his house and proposed love to her. Jacqueline accepted the proposal.
The two cousins started living together as a couple fully aware that they were related.
However, in April this year, the two had a misunderstanding, which prompted Jacqueline to file a false police report of rape.
Police detectives discovered that the two were related resulting in charges of having sex within a prohibited degree of relationship.
In mitigation, Muswati said that he plans to marry his niece and will pay a token of lobola known as “chekahukama” to legalise their union traditionally.
