adminMercy Ngwebvu
IN a desperate bid to evade maintenance, an Odzi man told the court that he would rather have his wife back than to part with the $103 she was claiming for the upkeep of their seven children.
Peter Mugovera and Mavis Chikunda appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mrs Yeukai Chigodora, with the former asking the court to order the latter to return to her matrimonial home.
“I never divorced my wife. She just woke up one day and said she was fed up and that she wanted to go back to her parents’ home. Now she is demanding maintenance from me and I don’t understand why? She should just come back home so that we help each other to take care of our children like we used to do before.
“We have seven children together and the thought of them calling some other man their father breaks my heart. I cannot afford maintenance, Your Worship. I just want my wife to come back home so that we take care of our family together,” said Mugovera.
Chikunda on the other hand would have none of it.
She insisted on maintenance, not a reunion with Mugovera, saying he was a negligent man who even failed to get birth certificates for his children.
Said Chikunda: “This man is a tobacco farmer who earns $5 000 annually and so he is able to take care of his children. I do not want a reunion with him. Instead I just want him to give me $103 as maintenance for our children. I also need this court to give him an order so that we can go and acquire birth certificates for all the children.”
Mrs Chigodora ordered him to pay $60 on the grounds that he was not formally employed.
Online Reporter