THEY promised to stay together “till death do them part,” but some unusual deal-breaker got in the way. This however, sounds interesting if the wife is telling the truth.
An elderly woman from Bulawayo’s Mzilikazi suburb got miffed and filed for divorce after her husband of 50 years violently harassed her for cooking vegetables instead of meat.
Agnes Sibanda filed for divorce after 50 years claiming she had been living daily in a terror-filled world of abuse at the hands of her husband Dail Sibanda.
Meat was cited as often a contested food in the marriage after she revealed that the final straw in their marriage was when her husband verbally harassed her for cooking vegetables instead of meat.
She apparently resented it so much, that she decided to seek a protection order against her husband while they are going through their divorce process.
“Upon returning home he began insulting me for making vegetables only and instructed me to prepare a fresh meal with meat. I made the said meal but he continued to insult me and threaten me.
“I was so afraid of what he might do to me that I ran away from our house in the night and had to ask a neighbour to sleep at her house. The following day I reported the incident at Mzilikazi Police Station and asked them to accompany me to collect my clothes as I no longer want to continue living with him for the sake of my sanity and happiness,” she narrated.
She added: “I advised him that I no longer intended on living with him or being his wife and asked him not to communicate with me. I have since filed for a divorce but he continues to call me and has even followed me to where I’m currently living”.
Agnes said she decided to approach the court seeking a protection order against her scorned husband fearing that he might harm her. The estranged couple got married on 6 December 1969 and have eight children together who are all majors and 25 grandchildren.
“Initially he was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive towards me but as we got older, the abuse is now mainly verbal, emotional, economic and physiological. He also refused me to work throughout our marriage.
“I have been forced to leave our matrimonial home on numerous occasions due to his abuse with the latest incident being on 12 November 2019”.
She said on the day in question, her husband harassed after she had gone to see the doctor and returned home to look for some documents which the doctor wanted.
“When I walked in, he started insulting me while accusing me of hiding something from him. He then left the house as I was preparing dinner,” she said.
Agnes said during the subsistence of their marriage her husband has also been intimidating her to such a point that she was even afraid to speak to their children without his permission or even to go to the doctor without his approval despite the fact that their children would be the ones paying her medical bills.
She further said her husband was also stopping her from visiting her relatives. In response her husband denied all the allegations levelled against him.
“I deny all the allegations that she has levelled against me. I don’t deny her access to her relatives. I have been to her relatives and participated in all our relatives’ social gatherings. I also take care of all her hospital bills,” he tersely responded.
For the purpose of maintaining peace between the estranged couple while they are going through their divorce, presiding magistrate Lesego Ngwenya referred them for counselling.
