By A Correspondent- Divorce is one of the most difficult chapters that people may encounter in their lives, and it can get much more complicated when estranged couples fail to agree to split assets fairly.
A Bulawayo woman is in a horrible situation after her estranged husband threatened to expose explosive and private details of their failed marriage to the media if she didn’t remove a vehicle and house from their divorce list of assets.
Sitshengisiwe Ndhlovu nee Ncube from Pumula East claimed her estranged husband Khumbulani Ndhlovu was trying to blackmail her after she filed for divorce at the Bulawayo High Court.
The aggrieved Sitshengisiwe, a supplies clerk at the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) last week rushed to the Bulawayo Civil Court to slap her estranged husband, a trainee engineman also at the NRZ with a protection order so that he should not reveal her unsavoury shenanigans.
“I am the applicant in this matter. The respondent is Khumbulani Ndhlovu. We got married in terms of the Marriages Act Chapter 5:11 in 2009. We separated in 2019 and I filed for divorce in April 2021 and it’s still pending at the (Bulawayo) High Court.
“The respondent has been threatening me concerning the proposed sharing of property in the divorce summons that I served him. He is insisting that if I don’t instruct my lawyers to remove the vehicle and house from the list of assets, he will tarnish my image by engaging journalists to defame me,” complained Sitshengisiwe.
She said her husband had also threatened to embarrass her at work.
“He has also threatened to come to my workplace to embarrass me. He has also threatened to burn any property that is going to be awarded to me.
“I am now emotionally and psychologically disturbed as a result of his threats. I also fear that he could physically abuse me because he has always been physically abusive during the course of our marriage,” she said.
Khumbulani, however, disputed his estranged wife’s accusations.
“I have never assaulted her or done anything wrong to her. From her application it’s clear that she is just trying to harass me. I can’t be barred from NRZ premises because that is also where I’m working as a student,” he said.
Sitshengisiwe’s request was dismissed by the magistrate Nkosinomusa Ncube for lack of merit.