HARARE // As Maliyaziwa Malunga mourns her dead husband, she also battles against his relatives who plot to seize her house in a custom that affects thousands of women in Zimbabwe each year.
A Human Rights Watch report released on Tuesday details how in-laws in the country routinely expect to take property and money from bereaved widows soon after their husbands die.
When Malunga’s husband died in 2013, his relatives locked her in her home, forced her to open her cash box, and stole US$4,000 (Dh14,700) and the title documents to her property.
“I lock my doors always fearing some of those in-laws will come and harass me,” said Malunga, who is still in a legal tussle to fight off the relatives.
“It is so painful to go to courts and it is stressful. I lose sleep, my blood pressure is high and I have lost weight because of stress,” the 53-year-old said.
Zimbabwean widows who are thrown out of their homes by their in-laws often have little chance of justice because many marriages are under customary law and not registered, HRW said.
“My advice is for married women to go to court and have a wedding certificate and we will not have problems like this one,” said Malunga.
“Widows must fight for their rights, they should be strong and should not give up,” she added, recalling that her husband’s relatives engaged in fistfights over her house in Chitungwiza, outside Harare.
The rights report called for the government to protect vulnerable, often elderly widows.
“The impact of property grabbing on widows is devastating,” said its author Bethany Brown.
“Women whose property was taken from them spoke of homelessness, destitution and loss of livelihoods.”
The study is based on interviews with 59 widows across Zimbabwe’s 10 provinces last year.
“[My brother-in-law] has taken all of my fields,” said Deborah, 58, from Mashonaland East.
“Now, he says that I cannot walk on ‘his’ fields ... Maybe he is really happy to see us suffer.”
The Legal Resources Foundation (LRF), an organisation helping widows in Zimbabwe, said it alone had handled at least 1,700 cases in the last three years.
“Women have to register their estates and they should do so immediately after the deaths of their husbands,” said Lucia Masuka-Zanhi, legal programmes director at LRF.
“Women can assert their rights through the courts and each case will be decided on its facts.”
* Agence France-Presse
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