Wife disappointed as court dissolves marriage

Patricia Edwin
Staff Writer | Tuesday June 28, 2011 00:00

The couple were appearing before Justice Moses Chinhengo recently when the husband, Tsametsi Khuwe, told the court that he had had enough of his wife's tricks and wanted out of the marriage. Not so, the wife said; the marriage could still be salvaged if they moved into one family home and avoided interruptions from relatives. The couple, who were married 10 years ago, told the court that they had not shared their matrimonial bed since at least 2005.

After listening to a long argument between the two, Justice Chinhengo finally decided that the marriage had broken down. Passing judgment, Justice Chinhengo said contrary to her claim in court, the wife had 'obviously' not done enough to try and save her marriage and that her petition did not seem genuine.

'The defendant says that they should be (given) another chance to give the marriage a try, but I do not think that it was a genuine request ... after staying apart for so long,' he said.

Justice Chinhengo said he agreed with the plaintiff that the marriage was gone and there was no saving it. In his view, the husband was a bit primitive while the wife was outspoken and always imposed her points on him, which was another reason the marriage had failed.

He said there was a significant clash of personalities in the marriage. The husband told the court that he would give all their property to the wife, except the plot, which he would give to their children.

When giving his evidence, the husband told the court that he wanted a divorce because his wife had started behaving radically, was not coming home on time and had lost interest in the marriage. 'At one time when I visited her, she left me in the house,' he said. 'Later on, her brother called me and told me to get a lawyer. That was a sign that she was no longer interested in the marriage.'

On the other hand, the wife said her husband was so irresponsible that they got evicted after he did not pay rent; that was the reason they had split. 'That is when our marriage started experiencing problems when we were living apart,' she said. 'I have gone to the District Commissioner trying to seek help, but I was not successful because we were told to go back to our parents for help.'

She asked the court to throw out her husband's divorce application because the marriage still had a chance to work. When the court was not persuaded, she applied for maintenance of their children, including the child she had brought into the marriage because her ex-husband had adopted him under customary law.

She was awarded custody and P800 in monthly maintenance.