Matabeleland North provincial administrator Latiso Dlamini has been dragged into Brigadier General Simo Maseko’s divorce case, with the top army officer’s wife accusing the bureaucrat of wrecking her marriage.

Maseko filed for divorce from his wife, Siboniso Lesley Maseko, on December 20, 2019 at the Bulawayo High Court citing irreconcilable differences.

In summons before the court, Maseko said there was no prospect of restoration of his marriage as the two had stopped living as husband and wife for over three years.

“The parties were married to each other in accordance and in terms of the Marriage Act (Chapter 5:11) on December 28, 1998, and the marriage relationship has irretrievably broken down to such an extent that there are no reasonable prospects of restoration of a normal marriage relationship,” the court papers read in part.

Maseko is represented by Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners legal practitioners.

“The plaintiff has lost all affection for the defendant, which fact is inconsistent with a normal marriage relationship. The parties have not lived as husband and wife for a period in excess of three years.”

In response, Siboniso is suing Dlamini for adultery, accusing her of causing her marriage to collapse and is demanding $500 000 in damages.

Siboniso claims Dlamini started dating her husband in 2017.

However, court papers state that her marriage to Maseko broke down a year before the alleged affair between her husband and Dlamini.

Dlamini is denying the claim, saying she was not responsible for the four-year breakdown in the marriage.

“It is my position that there is no basis for the claim of damages, which are not of my doing,” she said in her opposing papers filed on December 29, through her lawyers Dube-Banda, Nzarayapenga and Partners.

In the divorce settlement, Maseko requested a Mazda B1800 single cab, 55 head of cattle and 20 goats, with his estranged wife getting 40% of the market value of the property in Ilanda suburb, Bulawayo, a Forton double cab, all household property in Bulawayo, 15 cows and 10 goats as her sole and exclusive property.

Maseko also wants 60% of the market value of the Ilanda property and a Gweru stand donated to his daughters.