Man invades church, scolds ex-wife and pastor

A Harare man is in the habit of following his ex-wife to church and hurling obscenities at her in front of congregants and pastors.

The Harare Civil Magistrates' Court has now ordered him to stop the habit by granting the peace order his ex-wife asked for.

Auxillia Garinaro told magistrate Ms Meenal Narotam that her ex-husband, Trymore Mugombe, also visits her parents' house threatening to kill her. It is also alleged that Mugombe scolds Garinaro's parents using vulgar words if they try to reprimand him.

"I am applying for a protection order against my ex-husband. He comes to my parents' house where I am staying and he abuses me. We divorced, but he is always coming to our house saying I will have no peace in my life.  

"He calls me a prostitute in front of my parents and he even scolds my neighbours. Recently, he followed me to church and scolded me in front of the congregation and the pastor. He uses obscene words and he once approached my pastor and scolded him saying he was not in a position to reprimand him for his abusive behaviour. He is a very violent man and I am now afraid of him," she said.

Mugombe denied the allegations and told the court that Garinaro was denying him access to see his child.

"I am disputing that I am abusing her. We split in a bad way so I have nothing to do with her. All her allegations are false because she is jealous that I am now married to another woman.

"The problem is that she does not want me to see my child and when I visit to see my child, she tells her that I am not her father but her uncle. This pains me a lot and we end up exchanging words," he said.

Ms Narotam granted the order and ordered Mugombe to stop abusing Garinaro in any way or risk being arrested for breaching the order.