'My daughter is a serial prostitute'

A man from Umguza on the outskirts of Bulawayo pulled a shocker when he allegedly disowned his daughter on the grounds that she was a "serial" prostitute who was in the habit of giving birth to children with different men.

Dazimata Sithole made the disclosure while testifying against his wife, Cathrine Sithole who had accused him of being abusive.

"Dazimata Sithole is my husband and we got married in 1978. We have 10 children together and for the past 40 years my husband has been physically, verbally and emotionally abusing me. The recent case of abuse was on 7 February when he wanted to stab me with a kitchen knife and I had to seek refuge at a neighbour's house.

"My husband is also abusing other family members including our daughters and grandsons. At one time he struck our daughter with a hoe handle in the head. He also uses derogatory words to insult me in the presence of children and neighbours. He has also on several occasions threatened to poison me," said Gogo Cathrine.

Dazimata refuted his wife's accusations saying he was the one being abused.

"It is not true that I'm abusing her. She is the one abusing me. She teams up with one of our daughters to harass me.

This was after I reprimanded her (daughter) over prostitution. Our daughter's behaviour annoys me.

"She is a serial prostitute who beds different men from our area and I no longer want her at home. Just imagine as young as she is she now has three kids with different fathers. Recently she was beaten up after she double-crossed her other boyfriend with his brother.

"My wife is the one who protects her as she shouts at me whenever I try to reprimand her. That daughter is no longer amenable to correction and that is why I didn't want to see her at home," said Khulu Dazimata adding that his wife was also ill-treating and disrespecting him.

He added: "At one time they teamed up and struck me with stones. Another source of our problem is that my wife chased me out of the bedroom just because I am no longer working".

Gogo Cathrine hit back saying: "He is the one who is a problem as he drinks a lot and smokes mbanje. I didn't chase him out of the bedroom; he moved out on his own. I no longer need him in the bedroom and he should not come".

Her response didn't go down well with Dazimata who insisted that he still wanted to go back to the bedroom and make love to her.

"I still need to go back to the bedroom but she is refusing. Your Worship, how should I survive as a man without having sex? Ngiyasithanda isalukazi sami (I still love my elderly wife)," said Dazimata drawing laughter from the gallery.

When Gogo Cathrine was asked by the presiding magistrate Tinashe Tashaya why she chased her husband out of the bedroom she said she no longer had feelings for him.

When the magistrate ordered that her husband must have access to the bedroom, Gogo Cathrine started crying leading the magistrate to grant a reciprocal order which compels the couple not to physically, verbally and emotionally abuse each other as well as not to evict each other from the bedroom.