A man from Bulawayo who made headlines last week after he claimed that when his “abusive” wife beats him, he cheats as a payback tactic, has opened up about his toxic marriage.

Tinotenda Mudarikwa the founder of Rare Diseases and Disability Africa Zimbabwe (RaDDA), is having serious marriage problems with his wife Charity Mapondera-Mudarikwa.

They got married in September last year.

Less than a year after tying the knot, Mudarikwa is not enjoying his marriage life which produced a five-month-old baby daughter.

The sour relations of the couple have made some judge him as a “media attention seeker” after he held an interview with local radio station Skyz Metro FM.

In an interview with the radio station, Mudarikwa claimed his name was soiled by B-Metro as the story affected his philanthropic work.

From the horse’s mouth, Mudarikwa revealed to this reporter on Wednesday that most people and organisations that were funding him had since pulled out from sponsoring his initiatives of changing the lives of the underprivileged in the society. He blames his wife for taking their marital issues to the media.

“She (wife) has destroyed my life; I no longer have friends now. People who have been supporting me have pulled from injecting support to my organisation (RaDDA) because of the bad publicity the story generated.

“I am not going to leave my wife because of this saga, I want to man up for my actions because everyone makes mistakes and I am willing to take responsibility for my actions,” said Mudarikwa.

However, Mapondera-Mudarikwa believes that her husband is using media connections to clean his name.

Mudarikwa’s protection order application against his wife

“If you look at me and him, the body language simply concludes that I can’t exchange blows with Tino. Even his media friends didn’t talk to me and I don’t know how they manage to talk to Tino alone.

“If ever they wanted to strike a balance on this issue, they were supposed to call me in the studio and I express my views. Tino is using his connections and power to fight me and this is what most women in my position and situation suffer,” said Mapondera-Mudarikwa.

She said Tino was not apologetic about his shenanigans and cheating.

“Last week on Thursday night, we had a family meeting and he was not even remorseful about his actions. I don’t know when he is going to man up and take full responsibility for all this,” said Mapondera-Mudarikwa.

Even though Mudarikwa claimed he was not leaving his wife after this episode, a close source said a divorce was inevitable for the couple.

A protection order application (in the possession of B-Metro) filed by Mudarikwa against his wife is solid proof.

Mudarikwa said he was now turning over a new leaf.

He encouraged men to speak out about abuse they are facing in their homes.

“This has been a learning curve, I always kept it to my own that my wife is an abuser and the issue became a cancer to the extent that it couldn’t be controlled. The manner in which my issues became public is bad.

“However, it has made me brave and granted me an opportunity to face my fears head on. Let’s talk about these issues as men because the community always favours women as victims, yet there are some who are monsters,” Mudarikwa said.- B-Metro