The late former President Robert Mugabe used his nephew Leo Mugabe’s cattle to pay lobola for his second wife, Grace, in Chivhu in 1992, four years after he had sired Bona in an “adulterous” relationship as Sally (his first wife) was still alive.
Leo told the Daily News on Sunday that Mugabe later refused to reimburse the cattle on the pretext that Leo’s father had not fully paid lobola for Mugabe’s sister (Sabina).
Said Leo Mugabe:
The story is that I was sent by sekuru (Mugabe) to go and marry Grace in Chivhu. Indeed, most people believed I had married Grace for myself. I was sent by sekuru to marry her.
I was accompanied by my late brother Innocent. Sekuru told me to use my cattle to pay the lobola, with the promise that he would replace them.
Later, sekuru declined to replace my cattle, arguing that my father had not paid lobola fully when he married our mother. Still, I was happy for sekuru when he married Mbuya Grace, as he wanted children.
Leo, who is Sabina’s son, revealed that the reason why Mugabe married Grace while Sally was still alive was that he wanted children badly.
Mugabe and Sally had one child, Nhamodzenyika, who reportedly died before independence while Mugabe was detained by the colonial government.
