Man knocks out wife's teeth

An abusive man reportedly assaulted his wife and knocked out her front teeth after a heated argument, a magistrate heard.

Mutizwa Ngarande was yesterday hauled before the Harare Civil Court by his wife Stella Munyira on allegations of physical and verbal abuse.

Munyira told magistrate, Ms Meenal Narotal, that Ngarande was so abusive to the extent of assaulting her daily.

"My husband has chased me out of the house and he is constantly abusing me. He assaults me using fists and open hands and he knocked out my four front teeth while assaulting me," she said.

"He calls me a satanist on so many occasions. He harasses me, steals my money and is constantly chasing me out of the house. He also messes the toilet and forces me to clean up his mess.

"He told me that I am a useless wife and I should leave him in peace. He also destroys my household property."

Ngarande refuted the allegations and told the court that he last assaulted Munyira in 2007 and has never done so since then.

"I did not assault her but we fought and I overpowered her. The issue in terms of her money which I was given while she was in the rural areas and I used it for transport to go to work.

"When she came back, she started demanding her money back and manhandled me saying I was not going to work until I gave her the money before slapping me and that is when we started to fight. We then separated for a while and she came back home before we parted ways again," said Ngarande.

Munyira burst into tears, pleading with the court to separate her with Ngarande as she no longer loves him. Ms Narotam granted the protection order and ordered Ngarande to stop abusing his wife in any way.

She also told Munyira to approach the divorce court if she wanted to proceed with her divorce plea.