Just a year after being accused of scoring twins with a South African woman before leaving her in the cold, Zimbabwe’s deadliest ever striker Peter Ndlovu is in the news after reportedly impregnating a grieving young Bulawayo woman before ending all communication with her.
Unconfirmed reports say this brings the total number of the prolific striker’s children to 41.
The young woman, Loraine Makhumalo Sibanda, wrote an open letter on social media which has since gone viral after it was shared by Zuva Habane on her pages. She wants him to contribute to the upkeep of his son.
Loraine is the Bulawayo born founder of Michiko communications, a media company based in South Africa.
We present her letter below:
I hope you are great. I haven’t written a letter to anyone in what seems to be many moons ago but I am forced to do so due to the current situation and the state of our relationship as parents to our son.
It is important that while sharing this open letter, I also narrate the incidents that led us to both to be parents of a beautiful baby boy, correctly and accurately.
I remember the first time I met you, I was going through a difficult time and so was my family. My dad was very sick with colon cancer. Although I was celebrating my friend’s birthday, the month that I met you, I just knew if I saw you and got a selfie with the great soccer legend, my dad would be over the moon.
It’s not every day that you meet someone that your father loves and admires. That little hope and the smile on his face meant the world to me. I desperately just wanted to cheer him up.
Arriving at the party, I was pleasantly surprised by how humble you were. I had worked with a couple of celebrities and fame does get the best of some of them. So you can imagine my surprise in realizing you were nothing like what I had experienced (or so I thought).
After the birthday party celebrations, I was inspired to create a colon cancer Gala dinner event to raise funds for my dad’s medical expenses. I even posted this Gala dinner on my Facebook page as I normally do most of my events and people were keen to support my family. I had also hoped that in the near future the proceeds from the Gala would allow us to donate or sponsor families going through the same thing.
I thought to myself how about we auction old soccer jerseys of former and prominent soccer athletes? Anyone who knows me knows how passionate I am when I have an idea.
I was excited and thought meeting you was definitely a blessing. I made contact with you after I discussed this idea with our mutual friend, who then gave me your contact details.
She encouraged me that you are a kind person and this initiative would be something you are keen on. I remember how anxious I was and how much I was expecting a NO from you. After I proposed this Gala dinner to you and invited you to help me I could not believe you were interested in helping.
You were going to connect me to local and Zimbabwean soccer athletes to be part of the gala. I was ecstatic. To be honest, I was not even banking on a response from you till after a few days.
From then on began our frequent chats about the Gala dinner. Unfortunately, during that period I had to return home to nurse a very sick dad and also relieve my mom and a younger brother who had been taking care of my father from home.
He later passed away and lost his battle with cancer. I called you to notify you of this. You offered to help me with the burial but I remember declining the offer. A month after we buried my dad, I had to return to work. I was still a publicist then managing MIChiko PR alone but while away I received an offer to work with a music record label, thanks to a friend.
I soon made my way home soon thereafter. In a vey short space of time, I realized there was never a possibility of us being together and do you remember the reasons I gave you to explain why I felt this way? The time our son was conceived you and I were nothing more to each other besides being friends.
This is important to clarify as people will always make assumptions and things can blow out of proportion unnecessarily. I believe you know that too. I am in no way a scorned woman trying to make this more than what it is. If the tables were turned and you were in my shoes I am sure you would understand.
As an adult, it is hard to look in the mirror and point fingers at yourself. The opposite route seems easier, isn’t it? Which is what you are doing now by dismissing me and your son and pretending he doesn’t exist.
You and I both know how I conceived. While you may have the luxury to pretend he doesn’t exist, I don’t. I have to fight for him and fight for his right to decent way of life that he is deserving of. As his parents we brought him into the world planned or unplanned. It was our choice. So we both collectively owe him that much.
I made every effort possible to get you to meet and take care of your son and all my efforts have been futile. Your decision to stay away from me is definitely within your rights, it’s OK. However ignoring your son’s most immediate needs such as a decent roof above his head, clothing, food and an education towards his development is a fundamental right that you are consciously and effortlessly breaking.
All in an effort to punish me?? Do you hate me that much or is it simply that your ego means more to you? I also made an effort to send my uncle to speak to your brother Madinda Ndlovu, just prior to giving birth and woke up being blocked on Whatsapp.
I understand where he is coming from. You also followed suit and blocked my uncle after he directly reached out to you. My sister also made contact with you about six months ago. Funny enough you engaged with her but still chose to ignore a request for us or our families to meet to discuss our son.
I will probably be labelled reckless, stupid, a gold digger or any name that people will carelessly see fit to label me simply because I called you out and you will escape unscathed just by virtue of being a man, right?
You wake up in your fancy Greenstone Mansion without a care where your son is. You have the luxury of having prawns on your menu, and sharing it with the world online, not knowing what your son is going through.
Being pregnant during Covid was tough imagine going through it alone and praying your son does not catch the disease in the hospital where I was. You grave silence alone says it for you. Please don’t use that excuse of not being ready and not wanting him.
As adults we both know you had plenty of options to duly exercise before bringing him into the world. I didn’t force myself into your life. You willingly invited me into it. It’s almost 8 months down the line and I am yet to see your contribution to your son’s wellbeing.
