Ex-MP's wife granted protection order

BULAWAYO lawyer and former MDC-Alliance Member of Parliament for Binga North, Prince Dubeko Sibanda has been ordered to allow his wife back into their matrimonial home by a local magistrate.

Sibanda was ordered "not to hinder applicant's access to the matrimonial home" and "not to physically, verbally or emotionally abuse applicant".

In an application at the Bulawayo Magistrate Courts for a protection order, Sibanda's wife, Memory said her husband had been physically aggressive to her for a long time, but his behaviour had increasingly become unpredictable.

She said he had been acting in a menacing way which all came to a head when he threatened to axe her and her mother before throwing them out of the house in the dead of the night.

"I got the feeling that he just wanted me gone. Now I don't trust that he is of sound mind not to do something that would hurt me given that he has already threatened me with an axe and strangled me with our bedroom door locked," she told the court.

The marriage has been difficult for years, she told the magistrate, accusing her estranged husband of verbal and emotional abuse coupled with several threats of physical abuse. The threats culminated in threats to kill her and his mother-in-law with an axe after the latter and their children had forced their way into the couple's bedroom upon hearing her scream for help as Sibanda strangled his wife then picked an axe and threatened to axe her to death.

On a recent night, the wife said he arrived home at their Waterford residence around midnight and seemed very angry.

Sibanda reportedly entered their bedroom where he found his wife sleeping and started shouting at her telling her he was spoiling for a fight.

His wife said she pretended to be asleep to avoid the brewing confrontation with her visibly irate husband. She told the court that the politician then pulled the bed covers back and began to repeatedly pull and push her into the bed before strangling her with both hands.

She said he eventually let one hand off her throat and reached out to grab an axe that was near their bed at which point she was able to scream for help.

"My mum who had visited, my daughter (21) and my step-son (17) all woke up when I cried out for help.

They tried opening the door which was locked from the inside. I then managed to open the door and they all rushed into our bedroom to save me," she said.

"They stood between us, crying and asking why he was being violent.

In the process, he was trying to get to me with his axe, he pushed my mother and she fell down. Then wamsikiza ngehloka (then he threatened her with the axe).

"As if that was not enough, wasixotshanisa (he chased after us out of the house and yard) until we were all outside the gate.
Then he locked the gate. We had to sleep at a neighbour's house for a few days after he said he didn't want me back at home," said Mrs Sibanda.

Sibanda's wife told the court that problems for the couple began when her husband began to sell off their properties without consulting her and when she reached out to his family for assistance, he lost his cool.

She said one of his cousins had asked about the properties while they were attending a family funeral in Binga and upon his return, he attacked her and her mother before throwing them and the children out of the house.

The man rarely took a holiday, though when the family did go on holiday some time ago, it was "the most miserable 19 days of my life". Her husband was now "in a bad place, and the intensity of what has happened in the last weeks is frightening me".

The magistrate said he was satisfied that the necessary threshold had been reached and issued an interim barring order, with a decision as to what to do in the longer term to go to hearing next week.