61-Year-Old Man Allegedly Pays R14000 For A 13-Year-Old Bride. A man was summoned for allegedly purchasing a 13-year-old girl to be his bride.
A man was summoned for allegedly purchasing a 13-year-old girl to be his bride. On Monday the man stated that he never asked the girl’s age. The man was in the Port Elizabeth high court. The man said: “I didn’t ask for her age. I never told her my age and she never asked for mine.”
The man went on to say that they communicated via the phone, that’s the time when he called his niece who lives in Bizana. He admitted that his 46-year-old niece was assisting him in finding a wife. After speaking to the girl, the man let the 13-year-old know that he was looking for a wife to which the girl replied by saying that she wanted to get married because she was alone in Bizana. “She said she wanted to get married because she was alone there, that she didn’t have parents and that she wanted her own home,” said the man.
At the time, the little girl was living with the man’s niece. The girl moved to the place, Bizana, when her uncle, a 63-year-old man, acknowledged that she may move there so that she can resume her schooling. Her mother passed away in 2010, which resulted in her living with her uncle. She went to Bizana in 2015. The lobola arrangements were in place in 2016 for the girl to marry the 61-year-old man. The man supposedly said that the little girl portrayed interest in being wedded, after they met in person the girl supposedly said that she loved him.
They supposedly met after he paid the girl’s family R14 000. When they first met, the 61-year-old went with the girl to his rural home outside Bizana, this is where they stayed for two days. The girl cleaned and cooked for him, the man supposedly said that she did it voluntarily. The man was supposedly asked if the woman she was living with raised any concerns about the marriage, he said that there were no concerns. The man called his 63-year-old sister to talk about the marriage and she wasn’t against it. He went on to say that they were happy and in love.
When the lobola arrangements began, the 13-year-old was taken out of school because the man allegedly didn’t want her to go to school. Apparently once they got married she would have been allowed to talk about school with the man. The girl was sent to go live with the man in Port Elizabeth in October 2016 where he allegedly sexually assaulted her man times. The man, the girl’s aunt and the man’s sister look at two different counts of human trafficking. The 61-year-old man also looks at two extra counts for sexual assault. The case is still proceeding.
by Alexandra Ramaite
