‘His love for sadza is abnormal’

Tendai Gukutikwa
A LONG standing feud between two Muchena neighbours recently reached a boiling point, with the warring parties dragging each other to court seeking the law’s intervention. Regardless of the fact that Enock Mwashita had dragged Alice Chindondo to court begging for protection, the matter turned on him when Chindondo told the court that the reason why he had hauled her before the courts was because she had stopped giving him sadza.

She claimed that Mwashita was a pronounced beggar in Muchena area of Penhalonga as he was in the habit of moving from one house to the other begging for food.
Mutare magistrate, Mrs Yeukai Chigodora presided over the matter.

Chindondo told the court that Mwashita had chased away his wife and assaulted his mother, so he had no one to cook for him. “He begs for sadza daily and it has become a very annoying habit. At times he will be drunk. “He knocks at my door in the middle of the night and asks for sadza. Who in his right senses would do that Your Worship?

“He beat up his wife and chased her away and later chased away his mother too with his violent behaviour and now he has no one to cook for him and has resorted to target me,” claimed Chindondo.

She also told the court that she had suspicions that Mwashita wanted to seek sexual pleasures from her even though she was 60 and him only 34.
“What more reasonable explanation is there after he knocks on my door drunk and at midnight. The unsaid truth is that he wants sexual favours from me.”

Mwashita disputed with all that Chindondo had said and told the court that Chindondo and her son had burnt down one of his huts and that they would assault him whenever they come across him for no apparent reason.

Said Mwashita: “She hires thugs to assault me Your Worship and as we speak I have 10 cases against her at the Mutare Magistrates’ after she assaulted me as well as burnt down my houses. “Magistrate Langton Mukwengi has presided over some of the matters and the others are still pending. I do not drink beer as she wants this court to believe because I am a devoted Muslim.

“I now fear for my life because she threatened to kill me,” he begged for the order. Chindondo would not hear of it and told the court that Mwashita needed to be mentally examined because his love for sadza was abnormal. A binding protection order was granted between Chindondo and Mwashita.