Son, wife bash mom, evict her

Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Reporter
A DISTRESSING tale of family dynamics gone awry has emerged in Mutasa, where Joice Mhara accuses her husband, son, and daughter-in-law of subjecting her to prolonged abuse, neglect and eventual eviction from her matrimonial home.
Mhara claims she was forced to seek refuge in a tobacco barn for four months at their farm after her biological son, Willard Kudzai Rudhuwa, conspired with his wife, Irene Sithole, and his father, Obadiah Rudhuwa, to evict her from their homestead.
The matter recently appeared before Chief Mutasa’s community court, where Mhara revealed that the dispute stems from the allocation of Presidential farming inputs.
“I am being abused by my husband, our son, and his wife. It is all because of the farm we own together with my husband. Every season when Government distributes Presidential inputs, they come in my husband’s name.
“I am never allowed to access or use them to farm. My son and his wife always take control and I am treated like an outsider in my own home. I am the mother of the house, but they treat me like I am a stranger,” said Mhara, expressing her frustration.
She told the court that her attempts to assert herself during the last farming season triggered her eviction from the homestead.
“When I tried to speak up and ask about the inputs because I wanted us to plant early, they accused me of being greedy and disrespectful. That is when they chased me out of the house.
“I had no choice, but to stay in the tobacco barn. For four months, a married woman like me stayed in a tobacco barn. That is when someone advised me to seek help from legal experts,” she said.
Mhara said she was told by legal experts that she had the right to build her own house at the property.
However, when she told her children to remain with their father while she moved out to start afresh, they refused, causing further confusion and emotional distress.
“When I asked my brother to come and collect me, my children began crying, saying they did not want me to go.
“My husband and son, all they do is drink beer and waste money. They do not support me or the other children and my daughter-in-law is already walking in my footsteps, without realising it. She does not know that she will become like me one day. She is married to an abusive man like his father,” she said.
Mhara also claimed that her son, Willard and daughter-in-law, Sithole, had physically assaulted her.
“My son beat me with switches. He also beat his sister. He said I was abusing him and his father. But how do you abuse your own son when you are only trying to access what is rightfully yours?” she quipped.

In response, Willard denied ever laying his hands on his mother.
“I have never beaten my mother. All these things she is saying are false. She has her own problems, and fights everyone at home,” he said before his wife, Irene, distanced herself from the abuse claims.
“I have seen them fighting her. I was never a part of it. I stayed out of their issues. This started long before I even joined their family. I do not know why she is dragging me into it,” she said.
Her husband, Obadiah Rudhuwa, admitted to having problems with his wife, but accused her of causing chaos in the family, including setting fire on their house.
“She burnt our house, our bedroom and storeroom were reduced to rubbles. We lost fertiliser and a bed, all worth US$4 000. She did it intentionally. I did not report her to the police for arson, but I informed her parents. I am angry, yes, but I am trying to solve this with her family,” said Rudhuwa.
He also admitted bashing her after she had interfered while he was disciplining their daughter.
“Our daughter is doing Form Four, but she brings boyfriends home. I was trying to discipline her when she blocked me and she was caught in the cross-fire. Recently, she refused to give tomatoes to our daughter-in-law when I asked her to do so. She smashed the windows at the house. I have tried to engage her relatives to intervene with no joy,” he said.
Mhara produced a standing protection order she had obtained against her son, hubby and daughter-in-law, indicating a legal trail of documented abuse and neglect.
In his ruling, Chief Mutasa condemned the violence and disrespect shown to Mhara, especially by her son.
“Never beat your parents, no matter how old or big you are. Why would you beat your own mother? This is a woman who carried you for nine months, gave birth to you, and raised you.
“It is disgraceful. Your wife is just as disrespectful. Tell me, Irene, have you ever hit your own mother? Why then would you strike your husband’s mother?” asked Chief Mutasa.
Chief Mutasa said the land in question belongs to the erstwhile couple, not children, and ordered that Willard should leave the farm if he cannot respect his mother.
He also warned that continued violence from any of the three parties — despite the protection order — constitutes contempt of court, which may result in the incarceration of the offenders.