admin
Mpumelelo Nyoni Chronicle Reporter
“YOU are both stupid!” These words were uttered by a Bulawayo magistrate after a couple claimed they could not afford to send their four children to school.
Magistrate Victor Mpofu reprimanded Davies Muchimbira and his estranged wife Engeline Tapera who both reside in Pumula South for failing to cater for their minor children’s education.
Tapera dragged Muchimbira to the maintenance court seeking a garnishee order after he accrued $750 in maintenance arrears.
The couple has five children, four of them of school going age, but all have not been enrolled at any educational institution as both parents claim they do not have money to pay for their education.
It emerged in court that at one time the children were taken to the rural areas by their father as he was failing to raise fees for them. The children are believed to be four, nine and 17 years old. Two others are 14 year-olds.
The magistrate told the couple to be progressive-minded as education was the key to success.
“You are both stupid. You can’t keep having children if you can’t take them to school. Your eldest child has missed a year of school but should be writing her O level examinations this year. Instead, you are both shifting the blame to each other. Gone are the days when you would just have children because of tradition. Both of you have to take equal responsibility for your children’s education,” said Mpofu.
Mpofu said this after interjecting a heated argument between the two.
Muchimbira had earlier said he had another child with a different woman thus his wife should also get a job and help take the children to school. He said his estranged wife should not stay at home doing nothing as “piece jobs” were waiting for her.
But Tapera, who was demanding $250 monthly, could have none of that and at one time suggested that her husband’s $319 salary should be garnished so as to pay for their children’s school fees.
However, magistrate Mpofu told Tapera that she did not get married just to have children.
He then ordered $100 to be garnished from Muchimbira’s salary as maintenance payment from the end of July.
derick.khumalo