News / National
$8 000 maintenance debt gets man arrested
24 Jul 2018 at 06:58hrs | Views
A 55-YEAR-OLD man from Bulawayo has been arrested over maintenance arrears amounting to nearly $8 000 which accumulated over the past six years.
Stanley Nkala of Shambroke Farm just after Bulawayo's Queens Park suburb was in 2010 ordered to pay $110 monthly maintenance for the upkeep of his three minor children. He defaulted from July 2012.
Nkala pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to comply with a maintenance order when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Nomagugu Ncube.
He was remanded out of custody on free bail to Friday for judgment.
Representing Nkala, Ms Bridget Mushaninga of Legal Aid Directorate said her client stopped paying maintenance after making an agreement with his ex-wife.
"My client was ordered to pay maintenance and he complied with this order. He stopped paying maintenance in 2012 after he agreed with the complainant that she will take over their business in Gwanda in order for him to stop paying maintenance. They made an agreement that the complainant would use the proceeds made from the business to take care of the children. Therefore Your Worship my client didn't deliberately disobey the court order," said Ms Mushaninga.
"The complainant is just bitter because after she separated with my client her mother-in -law made a court application to evict her from her homestead as she was misbehaving. The complainant then filed a report against my client out of revenge. The fact that the complainant only reported the matter after so many years raises questions."
Prosecuting, Mr Moses Gondongwe said Nkala was ordered to pay a $110 maintenance fee to his ex-wife, Ms Catherine Nkala of Gwakwe area in Gwanda and was in arrears of nearly $8 000.
He defaulted paying maintenance from June 2012 to June 2018.
He said a certificate from the Gwanda Civil Court and bank statement could be produced in court as exhibits.
Ms Nkala said she had chosen not report her husband for maintenance arrears over the years as she still loved him and hoped that they could resolve their differences.
Stanley Nkala of Shambroke Farm just after Bulawayo's Queens Park suburb was in 2010 ordered to pay $110 monthly maintenance for the upkeep of his three minor children. He defaulted from July 2012.
Nkala pleaded not guilty to charges of failing to comply with a maintenance order when he appeared before Gwanda magistrate, Miss Nomagugu Ncube.
He was remanded out of custody on free bail to Friday for judgment.
Representing Nkala, Ms Bridget Mushaninga of Legal Aid Directorate said her client stopped paying maintenance after making an agreement with his ex-wife.
"My client was ordered to pay maintenance and he complied with this order. He stopped paying maintenance in 2012 after he agreed with the complainant that she will take over their business in Gwanda in order for him to stop paying maintenance. They made an agreement that the complainant would use the proceeds made from the business to take care of the children. Therefore Your Worship my client didn't deliberately disobey the court order," said Ms Mushaninga.
"The complainant is just bitter because after she separated with my client her mother-in -law made a court application to evict her from her homestead as she was misbehaving. The complainant then filed a report against my client out of revenge. The fact that the complainant only reported the matter after so many years raises questions."
Prosecuting, Mr Moses Gondongwe said Nkala was ordered to pay a $110 maintenance fee to his ex-wife, Ms Catherine Nkala of Gwakwe area in Gwanda and was in arrears of nearly $8 000.
He defaulted paying maintenance from June 2012 to June 2018.
He said a certificate from the Gwanda Civil Court and bank statement could be produced in court as exhibits.
Ms Nkala said she had chosen not report her husband for maintenance arrears over the years as she still loved him and hoped that they could resolve their differences.
Source - chronicle
