The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa
Weekender Correspondent
A CHIKANGA man accuses his abusive ex-wife of kicking him out of their matrimonial bedroom and forcing him to sleep on a cold floor every night for close to a year during the subsistence of the marriage.
Peter Mutukwa was applying for a protection order for himself and his three children against his estranged wife, Patience Hurudza, whom he described as an abusive and negligent wife and mother.
The couple appeared before Mutare magistrate, Mr Xavier Chipato, on Monday.
Mutukwa told the court that he was forced to sleep on the cold floor for close to a year before he was finally kicked out of their matrimonial bedroom by Hurudza.
He explained that when it was time to retire to bed, Hurudza would throw herself on the bed and sleep across it so as to ensure he would not have any space left.
She would order him to sleep on the floor without any blankets.
“This went on for close to a year. I slept on the floor until she finally kicked me out of the bedroom. I was abused by this woman, but kept my cool. When I was kicked out of the bedroom, I realised that it was time for me to move on because it was clear that all love had been lost between us,” he said.
He described being kicked out of the bedroom as a blessing in disguise as he was left with the freedom to marry another woman.
Mutukwa said while they stay at the same house, he has brought in a new wife.
“She abuses the children and throws them out of the room she is occupying at night, accusing me of poisoning them against her. She said she could not accommodate the children as they love me. The children are aged 18, 13 and five. I am begging this court to order her to stop mistreating the children and l,” he said.
He claimed that Hurudza never cared for the children as he was forced to cook and wash for them even before he was kicked out of the matrimonial bedroom.
“At one time she had me arrested after I had confronted her on her whereabouts. She had left home on a Saturday and came back on Wednesday. When she came back, I asked her where she had been and she rushed to make a police report, lying that I had assaulted her,” said Mutukwa.
ln response, Hurudza accused her ex-husband of turning her children against her.
“My own children no longer greet me, yet we stay at the same house. I know it is him and his new wife who are influencing them. Yes, I throw them out even at night because they do not listen to me. They are always siding with their poisonous father,” she fumed.
“We were staying in ZIMTA when we separated. I moved and found accommodation at my Chikanga lodgings. He followed me to rent at the same house. We separated more than five years ago,” she said.
However, Mutukwa insisted that they only separated last year.
Mr Chipato granted the protection order in Mutukwa’s favour and ordered Hurudza not to harass, intimidate, assault and insult the aggrieved parties.
The order will be valid for five years.
