BULAWAYO – A woman has asked a court to order a Member of Parliament to pay her $30,000 damages for taking her virginity and then breaking a promise to marry her.
Henrietta Tafadzwa Chauke, of Mberengwa, says in a High Court filing that she “suffered and still suffers from hurt” after Mberengwa North MP Tafanana Zhou (Zanu PF) called time on their relationship in February this year.
They met in February of last year and four months later, Chauke says Zhou met her aunt and made a verbal promise to marry her.
She only agreed to have sex with him because he promised to marry her, she says in summons filed on her behalf at the Bulawayo High Court by lawyers Mugiya and Macharaga Law Chambers.
“The defendant (Zhou) also introduced me to some of his relatives and we had sexual intercourse which was premised on prospects for an imminent marriage. At the time of the sexual intercourse with the defendant, I was a virgin and I fell at the instance of his solicitation and promise to marry me,” she says.
Now she says her chances of finding marriage are “severely diminished due to the loss of my virginity.”
“My personal dignity and reputation in the eyes of my family and friends was grievously impaired by the breach of promise to marry especially after the defendant had introduced me to his brothers and having also introduced him to my aunt and sisters during which he also reiterated his promise to marry me,” she added.
Zhou is yet to respond to her demand.
