News / Local
Magistrate declines to dissolve 38-year marriage
24 Mar 2015 at 01:22hrs | Views
A BULAWAYO magistrate yesterday declined to dissolve an elderly couple's 37-year-old marriage saying God would smite him if he did so.
Elsina Nyathi - whose age was not given - had dragged her husband Dennis Ndlovu, 67, to court saying she wanted to end their marriage because he moved out of the matrimonial home in 2012.
She told the court her husband had since told her he had found a younger woman who would bear him children.
Magistrate Victor Mpofu said every effort should be made to save the marriage and referred the couple for counselling.
He postponed the matter to April 13.
Mpofu said he was giving Ndlovu and Nyathi a chance to reconcile.
The couple have no children.
"UNkulunkulu engangitshaya ngoswazi sibili (God would punish me) if I agree to separate you. Do you know that God doesn't like to see people divorce or separate? If you two are to separate after so many years of marriage, then what about us? What are we supposed to do?" asked magistrate Mpofu.
"Your Worship, we haven't been living together for a long time. In 2012, he sent his relatives to tell me that he had found a younger woman and has already paid lobola for her because he wants to have children," Nyathi said.
"He knew I couldn't have children before we got married.
"He promised to stay with me at our rural home when he retires. Right now I want to go back to my parents' homestead and build a house for myself because there's nothing left in our union," she added.
She told the court that she recently found out that her husband sired a son who is now 24 years old, with another woman.
Ndlovu told the court he did not want to separate with his wife.
He told the magistrate that he did not want his marriage problems to be handled by "children."
"I don't want my case to be presided over by children. I'd rather go to the chief and report this matter so that he deals with it," said Ndlovu.
Source - chronicle
