A BULAWAYO woman is living in fear of being murdered by her husband.
Caroline Masukume, a fuel attendant at a local service station claimed her husband Victor Mano, a physiotherapist at the United Bulawayo Hospitals, had on several occasions threatened to end her life in the most brutal way. She said Mano constantly threatened to end her life with an okapi knife.
So chilling are the threats that a fearful Masukume escaped with her life when she deserted the matrimonial home to stay with her brother.
In a desperate bid to also stop her husband from living true to his grisly threats she sought a protection order against him at the Bulawayo Civil Court.
According to facts contained in the affidavit which she submitted in court, so violent was Mano that he also threatened to stab her brother whom she is now staying with.
“Victor Mano is my husband and we got married in July 2012 in terms of the Marriages Act Chapter 5:11. He is very violent towards me to an extent that he has threatened to kill me on several occasions with an okapi knife. The latest incident being on 24 July when he threatened to assault and kill me after I visited my brother. He once followed me to my brother’s place and threatened to stab all of us using an okapi knife.
Whenever I left home going to work or visiting my relatives, he accused me of having gone to see my boyfriends. I therefore request that this court grants me an order that stops him from verbally and physically abusing me and also to allow the police to escort me to collect my clothes and property that I left when I left our matrimonial home,” begged Masukume.
She also narrated to court a gruesome ordeal when her husband brutally assaulted her a few days after giving birth.
In his response Mano, however, pleaded with the court to save his marriage which is apparently on the brink of collapse.
“I agree to some of the things she has levelled against me and deny some. I admit that as a couple we used to have misunderstandings and exchanged harsh words. Maybe she was hurt by some of the words that I said to her when we had altercations. I, however, dispute that I assaulted and injured her. We fought on that day she has alleged that I assaulted her. My request is that may the court save our marriage because I really love her,” pleaded Mano.
In her ruling the presiding magistrate Nomasiko Ndlovu ordered Mano not to verbally and physically abuse his wife or threaten her in any way.
