'Clearing agent hubby of 9 years turns to be a cleaner'

FOR nine years, a Victoria Falls woman was married to a man she thought was a clearing agent yet he works as a cleaner.

Dephine Sithembiso Ndlovu, 26, told Victoria Falls resident magistrate Sharon Rosemani that she got married to Maxwell Nyathi because he had told her that he was a clearing agent in the resort town.

The mother of two was visibly shocked in court when she heard for the first time that her husband of nine years was a cleaner.

"He told me he was a clearing agent when we got married. I am just hearing it now that he is a cleaner," said Ndlovu.

The couple has two children together, aged nine and four. Ndlovu dragged Nyathi to the Maintenance Court to compel him to take care of his two sons after the couple separated recently. However, Nyathi denied lying about his job and claimed that his clearing agent contract expired and he later became a cleaner.

He said it was in fact Ndlovu who had kept a secret from him during their marriage – she was a drunkard, a development that led to their separation.

"We have been together for nine years. I wanted us to talk about our problems but we have fought because she drinks too much. I did not want our marriage to end up in this way but we broke up when I bumped into her in a nightclub. I did not know she frequented bars in my absence until I caught her recently," Nyathi told the court.

He said his wife took their children to the rural areas as she feared he would take them away because she is not a good mother.

The woman was claiming $200 but the magistrate last week ordered Nyathi to pay $120 per month for the upkeep of the two children until they are 18.