Abused hubby washes plates at knifepoint

Men usually suffer in silence when they are abused by their wives, but Louis Moyo who has been enduring a tough time at the hands of his violent wife, who threatens to stab him to death, summoned the courage to drag her to Western Commonage civil court in Bulawayo.

Moyo's wife has been verbally, emotionally and physically abusing her husband. He has been forced to do household chores by his wife Bertha Ndlovu. Whenever he fails to do so his wife bashes him and verbally insults him, calling him lazy.

Each time the two were involved in an argument, Bertha would go to great lengths and threaten to axe him to death or wave a kitchen knife in the air while threatening to stab him to death.

Fearing for his life, the hapless Moyo had to seek a protection order against his abusive wife.

"I'm applying for a protection order against my wife, Bertha Ndlovu. She is very violent as she forces me to wash plates or do laundry and if I ask her to help me she would accuse me of being lazy. After that she would hit me with open hands," he said.

He added: "Each time an argument arises over a domestic issue, she would pick a kitchen knife and wave it in the air while threatening to kill me with it and or at times she would rush to the bedroom and pick a small axe under our bed and threaten to axe me to death. I have tried to reason with her on several occasions but she never listens to me as she is very harsh and she would insult me for no apparent reason."

Moyo said he has suffered enough abuse at the hands of his wife.

"She has abused me more than enough. I therefore apply for a protection order against her so that she stops insulting me or beating me. I also pray that she would stop threatening to kill me," he begged the court.

The presiding magistrate Jeconia Prince Ncube granted him a protection order against his abusive wife and ordered Bertha not to verbally abuse her husband and she was also ordered not to beat him or threaten to kill him.