adminThandeka Moyo Court Correspondent
A BULAWAYO man yesterday told a magistrate he was living in fear of his wife who beats him routinely and recently threatened to give him a permanent scar.
Mr Aleck Ndlovu, of Westgate, was granted a peace order against his wife, Ms Ngonidzashe Maphosa, after telling of his torment at the Bulawayo Civil Court.
“My wife has of late become very violent and manipulative. When I first proposed love to her, she was loving and supportive but I don’t know what has gone wrong,” Mr Ndlovu told magistrate Ms Sibongile Msipa.
“Sometime in July, we had a misunderstanding over a phone call and she took my handset, smashed it against the wall and slapped me on the cheek. I couldn’t fight back because I’m aware of the laws which restrict such behaviour.”
He said his wife has suicidal tendencies, which she uses as emotional blackmail whenever they have a misunderstanding.
“We recently had a fight over my friends and my late wife’s picture which was hung in the lounge. In the middle of the fight, she got hold of a flower vase and hit me in the stomach several times but I decided to hold back my anger,” Mr Ndlovu calmly told the magistrate as his wife looked on.
“I’m now living in fear and I can only imagine what she will do to me next time we quarrel. She even threatened to leave me with a permanent scar and I wonder what that means. My two children are also in danger.
“At one point I told her I was no longer interested in the relationship and she demanded compensation, refusing to go back to her rural home in Mberengwa.”
Ms Maphosa said her abusive tendencies were a result of her husband’s attitude towards her.
“The honest truth is we usually fight with my husband and I only beat him as a way of retaliation,” she said.
Ms Msipa dismissed her argument and granted Mr Ndlovu the protection order.
“If it’s true that you were being physically assaulted by your husband, why didn’t you apply for a protection order against him? You are thereby ordered to stop assaulting or threatening your husband. You should learn to live in peace as families and to solve your problems in an amicable way,” she said.
Chronicle later caught up with the couple at their Westgate home and Mr Ndlovu was happy to announce they had resolved to live peacefully.
“We had misunderstandings with my wife which is normal in every relationship. We’ll go for counselling and try to live in peace as a normal family. I encourage people to speak up when in problems because bottling them in does not help,” said Mr Ndlovu.
Online Reporter