Zimbabwe: Dispute about money and infidelity leads to sodomy arrest
Police arrest gay couple who asked them to resolve dispute about money.
Two men in Zimbabwe face the possibility of spending a year in prison after accidentally revealing to police that they’re a gay couple.
Under Zimbabwean law, same-sex intercourse is punishable by up to one year in prison and/or a fine.
Prosecutors told Harare Magistrates’ Court on Sept. 2 that the two men began a relationship in August 2023, lived together, and at times recorded themselves having sex.
A dispute over missing money and the inadvertent disclosure of their living arrangements to the police led to two Harare men facing charges of engaging in a same-sex relationship.
Tavimbanashe Chawatama (28) and Leonard Nyakudya (25) appeared in the Harare Magistrates’ Court on charges of sodomy on [Sept. 2] and were granted bail set at $50.
The Washington Blade reported:
The couple on Aug. 27 had an altercation involving infidelity, which prompted one of the men to move out of the house. One of them was accused of stealing money as he was about to leave, which prompted the police to respond.
The two men while filing reports at the police station inadvertently provided details about their relationship and living arrangements, which resulted in their arrest for sodomy.
The men have been granted a $50 bail. Their sentencing is expected this month.
HQ Collective ZW, a Zimbabwean advocacy group, said the [National Prosecuting Authority] treated the men unfairly, noting the police ignored their initial reason for approaching them.
“The issue that was reported and the issue that they are being prosecuted for is a direct reflection of how the LGBTQ community in Zimbabwe is stripped of its human rights. It’s unjust and unfair,” said the group. “We have had cases of sexual assault, corrective rape, pedophilia, and gender based violence within the community, but the community can never take these issues to the police because at the bottom of it, awaits the prosecution of LGBT individuals despite the circumstances at hand.”
LGBTQ Nation reported the news this way:
A young gay couple in Zimbabwe inadvertently got themselves arrested when one called the police on the other over a money dispute.
The two men – one aged 28 and the other 25 – appeared before the Harare Magistrates’ Court on charges of sodomy after the dispute led to an unexpected disclosure of their relationship.
Homosexual activity is illegal in Zimbabwe. The young men face up to 14 years in prison plus associated fines if they’re found guilty.
According to prosecutors, the couple began a romantic relationship in August 2023, when they moved in together and are alleged to have engaged in consensual same-sex relations.
Investigators discovered video of the men engaged in sexual activity with one another taken with their mobile phones.
On August 27, one of the men accused the other of infidelity. The argument escalated, authorities said, and the 25-year-old decided to move out of their shared home. As he prepared to leave, his boyfriend noticed some of his money was missing.
Both men made a decision to call the police to settle the dispute, investigators say.
But as the young men’s story unfolded in their interview with cops, the nature of their relationship revealed itself.
Zimbabwe’s National Prosecuting Authority said in a charging document: “The accused persons inadvertently furnished the Police with details of the crime of sodomy as they narrated the issue of the missing money and their living arrangements, resulting in their subsequent arrest.” …
Penalties for same-sex relations are a holdover from colonial-era laws imposed on Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, by the British. A popular sentiment in the country and many other African nations is that homosexuality is a result of Western influence and “immorality.”
As a result, the penalties for same-sex acts have grown only more draconian across the continent, with the most notorious example Uganda’s Kill the Gays law imposing the death penalty for certain same-sex acts.
In Zimbabwe, in addition to same-sex relations being illegal, same-sex marriage is banned by the country’s constitution, there are no legal protections for LGBTQ+ people in housing and employment, and gay people are barred from adoption, military service, gender or related name changes, access to IVF, surrogacy, and giving blood.
