By A Correspondent- A Norton man has hidden his 14-year-old wife before going into hibernation, fearing arrest.

 Tapiwa Muza went into hiding after the police launched a manhunt on him for impregnating his 14-year-old girlfriend.

The girl’s mother, who is based in South Africa, heard about her daughter’s pregnancy and threatened to take legal action against Muza, who stays with his grandmother in Glaudina.

Muza told H-Metro that he is living in fear over the threats of arrest he received and was at a safe house in Domboshava.

The girl’s mother told the same publication that she approached Dzivaresekwa police station for assistance with a view to taking her daughter from Muza.

She claimed Muza forced her daughter to switch off her mobile phone and instructed her to go to Chitungwiza where she collected her belongings and disappeared to an unknown place after they learnt that she (the mother) was in the country. 

She said:

That forced me to seek guidance from police at Dzivaresekwa and the officers led me to Glaudina where Muza and the daughter were reported to have been in hiding.

I cannot allow my daughter to marry at that age and I am prepared to take her.

Muza’s uncle Elisha Marumahoko said the girl’s mother instructed them to keep the girl away from Muza until she arrives in the country. Said Marumahoko:

I was shocked to see her coming in the company of police officers demanding to see the girl and Muza.

Muza is in Domboshava and the whereabouts of the girl is not known since the day she went to her mother in Chitungwiza.

We are aware that Muza impregnated a minor and it’s a case but the girl’s mother failed to be honest with her real decision.

Muza confirmed to H-Metro that he was staying in Domboshava and living in fear. He said:

I am prepared to marry the girl… I am not abusing her as alleged but I fear arrest over impregnating the minor.

The mother also revealed that she separated from her daughter’s father when she was only two years old.

The issue of child marriages has been in the spotlight of late after Annah Machaya, a 14-year-old girl, died during childbirth at a Johanne Marange Apostolic sect shrine in Bocha.

Anna’s husband, Hatirarami “Evans” Momberume was arrested and his cases are pending before the courts.