By A Correspondent- Silindiwe Mabhena from Nyamandlovu district in Matabeleland North has dragged her husband Khumbulani Moyo to court for drunkenness.

Mabhena claimed her husband had, on many occasions verbally and physically abused her whenever he was angry or drunk.

Narrating her ordeal at the Bulawayo Civil Court where she was seeking a protection order against her husband, Mabhena said their marriage was full of frequent fighting instigated by Moyo who was a drunkard.

She said her husband always insults or assaults her whenever there is a little misunderstanding between them.

“My husband Khumbulani Moyo is violent. He verbally and physically abuses me especially when he is drunk. The latest incident of violence was on 30 July when he choked me. The abuse has been going on since 2011. I am now living in fear that he might kill or injure me and as a result I want the court to grant me a protection order that stops him from verbally and physically harassing me,” begged Mabhena.  

She said whenever her husband was drunk and she tried to persuade him to stop driving her car, he would beat her mercilessly.

“Whenever I reprimand him not to drink and drive he assaults me. He drives my car in my absence and I don’t want him to drive it when he is drunk.”

But in his defence Moyo, an ambulance driver at Nyamandlovu District Hospital, refuted all the allegations.

He said his wife was always the one who harassed him and took the blankets away from him whenever they had any misunderstanding.

“Whenever I arrive from a bar I don’t talk to her. She is the one who starts provoking me by pulling away the blankets from me when I am sleeping. It is also not true that I drive while I’m drunk and that I choked her,” said Moyo.

His defence, however, failed to convince the presiding magistrate Rachael Mukanga who subsequently ordered him not to verbally, emotionally and physically abuse his wife or threaten her in any way.-BMetro