Man wins protection order against abusive wife

A Harare man has been granted a protection order against his wife, whom he accused of subjecting him to 16 years of verbal, emotional, and physical abuse over allegations of barrenness.

Mr Leonard Tamiwa appeared before Harare Civil Court magistrate Mr Ashton Dube, seeking relief from what he described as a long-standing pattern of humiliation and mistreatment by his wife, Ms Thokozile Sibanda.

Testifying before the court, Mr Tamiwa said his wife had turned their once-harmonious marriage into a "battleground of insults and mockery," often ridiculing his masculinity and comparing him unfavourably to other men.

"She calls me useless and says I am not a real man because she claims I cannot father children," Mr Tamiwa told the court. "She knows I had three children with my late wife, but she still mocks me every day."

He said the abuse, which began subtly early in their marriage, had intensified in recent years. Matters came to a head when Sibanda allegedly threw his clothes and personal belongings out of their matrimonial home, declaring that he had no right to live there because he was "not man enough."

Mr Tamiwa said his humiliation had become public, with neighbours now gossiping about his private life. "I have lived in fear and shame. I cannot eat or sleep peacefully," he said. "She calls me names, shouts at me, and sometimes pushes me around."

He further told the court that Sibanda's relatives had also joined in the abuse and that she was attempting to deny his children from a previous marriage access to the property he owned before marrying her.

In her response, Sibanda admitted assaulting her husband but said she acted out of anger and frustration, claiming he had failed to satisfy her as a husband. "I was angry because he could not satisfy me. I believe he was bewitched because, at one point, I saw worms coming out of his manhood," she alleged, prompting murmurs in the courtroom.

She said she had "lived like a widow" for the past 16 years and had lost all respect for her husband.

Mr Tamiwa dismissed her claims as malicious lies meant to destroy his reputation. "I am a healthy man. I had three children before I met her. She is making up these stories to embarrass me because I reported her to the police," he said.

After hearing submissions from both sides, Magistrate Dube granted the protection order in Mr Tamiwa's favour and advised the couple to seek counselling to address their marital problems.