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Prosper Dembedza Court Reporter
A Harare woman is suffering stigma and discrimination after another person who shares her name appeared at the Harare Civil Court claiming her boyfriend deliberately infected her with HIV and was now stealing her ARVs. Chipo Kamuriwo of 183 Monavale Road, Milton Park, said she has not known peace since The Herald last week published the story about he namesake.

Of major concern to her is that the story has put her “off the market” since she is single and those who read the story will not be interested. Kamuriwo is now at pains to explain to people that she is not the one referred to in the story.

She said she had since gone for an HIV test to prove to those concerned that she was not HIV positive and was not the one referred to in the story.

Kamuriwo showed The Herald several WhatsApp messages from her friends and relatives, some not happy that she had concealed her HIV status from them.

Some were calling her heartless for “not revealing” her status.

A physical check on the court records revealed that Kamuriwo’s national identification number is different from her namesakes.

In an interview with The Herald last week, Kamuriwo said most people she associated with – friends, relatives and church mates – had phoned her about the case.

“I was awakened early in the morning by a shower of phone calls from people who were desperate to get to the bottom of the matter,” she said.

“One of my friends told me that a story about me was in The Herald. She wanted to know why I was fighting with my ex-boyfriend over ARVs.”

Kamuriwo said when the interrogations intensified, she rushed to buy her own copy of the newspaper.

“When I read the story, I just laughed it off because I knew it was not me, but just a mere coincidence,” she said.

“I really want my name and surname to be cleared because this story has placed me out of the market since I am single,” she said. “Who will marry me if my name is not cleared?”