adminAuxilia Katongomara Court Reporter
A BULAWAYO woman attempted to surrender custody of her children aged four years and three months to her husband at the Bulawayo magistrates’ courts yesterday.Sibongile Ndlovu was protesting against her husband Nyika Zireni’s failure to pay the agreed maintenance money.
The couple has two other children, aged 15 and 13 years.
Zireni who is employed as a machine operator by a local company was ordered to pay $180 in April but when he met Ndlovu on Tuesday he offered to pay $150.
This did not go down well with Ndlovu who was demanding $200 as Zireni had a $20 shortfall from last month.
The two later agreed to come to court yesterday to have the matter resolved.
Ndlovu who is not employed told court officials who were trying to mediate that she would not take the $150 saying it was not enough as she was HIV positive together with one of their children.
“This man did not treat me well, he left me pregnant with our fourth child and infected me with HIV and now he wants to give me money which is short.
I am on Anti-Retroviral Treatment and I have to eat properly and my baby who is also positive needs special attention and this money that he is offering is not enough,” Ndlovu told the court officials.
Zireni produced his pay slip which showed he earns $268 and said he could not afford to pay $200 at once.
The officials advised the couple not to wash their dirty linen in public.
Soon after leaving the court building around lunch time, onlookers were treated to free drama as Ndlovu tossed her four-year- old son into her husband’s hands.
Zireni tossed him back to Ndlovu and it continued back and forth for some time, before the helpless boy was rescued by a court official who told the couple that they risked being arrested for child abuse.
They were taken back into the court building for counselling with Zireni insisting on getting variation forms to review the maintenance downwards as he felt that it was too much.
Ndlovu wept as she narrated how Zireni treated her and neglected her for his mistress identified only as MaMpofu when she was heavily pregnant with school going children who had to be taken care of.
Zireni eventually paid $170 and promised to pay the balance next week and Ndlovu took the children back.
derick.khumalo