Unemployed hubby begs court for job

03 Jan, 2020 - 00:01 0 Views
Unemployed hubby  begs court for job Manyoba

The ManicaPost

Tendai Gukutikwa,Weekender Correspondent

A MUTARE man left the court gallery in stitches when he begged the presiding magistrate for a tailoring job so that he could use the proceeds to pay lobola and maintain his children.

David Manyoba made the bizarre request  when he appeared before Mutare magistrate Ms Nyasha Kuture after his wife, Shorai Labeka, had dragged him to court demanding $600 maintenance for their three children.

Ms Kuture ordered Manyoba to pay $300 for the children’s upkeep, prompting him to beg her for a job claiming that he could not raise the $300.

“Help me Your Worship, the only thing that you and the court can do, given my predicament, is to give me a job as a tailor. I am a trained tailor and can make clothes for judicial officers.

“I am between a rock and a hard place because my wife is demanding that I pay her lobola and, on the other hand, she wants me to pay the children’s maintenance, yet I am unemployed. How am I going to pay for all that without any form of employment?” he asked.

Manyoba told the court that he was looking for lobola since Labeka’s parents were hot on his heels after being pressured by the applicant to do so. “As poor as I am, I am expected to look for money to pay her lobola and maintenance at the same time. I am afraid I cannot manage to do so because I am a church mouse. Just last week Labeka moved out of our matrimonial home because of the lobola issue.

“Your Worship, this woman is demanding her own lobola instead of waiting of her family to second a go-between to do that. She demands it herself and then pressures her parents to pursue me. Is that normal in our Shona culture?”

“I am poor, I used to work as a self-employed tailor in Harare, but the business folded due to the unstable operating environment. I have since moved to the rural areas with nothing. I am unemployed because no one wants to have their clothes done in the rural areas,” he said.

“Is it still about marriage?” he asked, when told that a woman could apply for maintenance from their husband even if they were staying together.

Manyoba begged the court to offer him employment failing which he would go to jail as he had no means to pay either  his children’s maintenance or Labeka’s lobola.

Labeka told the court that Manyoba was now a farmer in the rural areas and a part- time tailor and so he could afford to look after his children. She said Manyoba earned about $1 000 a month and the $600 she was demanding was fair.

Ms Kuture, however, ordered Manyoba to pay $300 per month until the children are self-sufficient or attain 18 years.

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