Magistrate tells woman to find her own man

A PLUMTREE magistrate has ordered a Mangwe woman who dragged her lover's wife to court for harassing her to stay away from married men.

Ms Siphiwe Maphosa of Ingwizi area told the court that Ms Joyce Ndebele was constantly insulting and threatening her for having an affair with her husband, Mr Learnmore Ncube.

Ms Maphosa who has a three-month-old baby with Mr Ncube said she had separated with him but his wife kept harassing her.

She said Ms Ndebele didn't want her to associate with the father of her child yet she was forced to for the sake of the child.

She appealed with the court to grant her a peace order against Ms Ndebele.

Plumtree magistrate Mr Joshua Mawere granted Ms Maphosa's request but told her to find her own man and leave married men alone.

"I will grant you your peace order and warn Ndebele from intimidating you but you have to stay away from married men. As we speak you have a child with a married man which shows that you are a woman of loose morals. Get yourself your own man and settle down with him because if you continue this way you will always have a problem of women who will be harassing you. You will just be marching in and out of courts," said Mr Mawere.

Ms Maphosa said Ms Ndebele was in the habit of insulting her saying she was an HIV positive prostitute. She said sometime in October, Ms Ndebele teamed up with her friends and stormed her homestead with an intention to beat her up but she fled from the scene. She also accused Ms Ndebele of spreading rumours about her.

"Ndebele has been moving around telling people that I am HIV positive and that I'm on a mission of infecting different men within our community. I have a baby with her husband and she is harassing me because of that even though I'm no longer seeing him. I want her to stop insulting and threatening to assault me. I don't want her interfering with my life. She told me that I have to surrender my child to her as I had him with her husband so that I can stop associating with him but I can't do that," she said.

In response Ms Ndebele told the court that she didn't object to the peace order but she wanted Ms Maphosa to stay away from her husband. Mr Mawere warned Ms Ndebele against insulting or threatening to assault Ms Maphosa.