Harare – A Harare woman, Ms Namatai Foto, has been granted a protection order against her husband, Mr Sheky Gwagwadza, after she pleaded with the Harare Civil Court for assistance in leaving him and returning to her parents’ home with their seven children, citing relentless abuse.
Ms Foto appeared before Magistrate Johanna Mukwesha last Friday, seeking the protection order based on allegations of insults and harassment. She claimed that Mr Gwagwadza engaged in stalking behaviour and spoke negatively about her in her absence.
“I do not want him anymore. I want to live at my parents’ house because this man is abusing me,” she implored the court. “I want him to stop coming to my workplace and to cease stalking me and saying bad things about me in front of the children. He is always threatening me, saying he will kill me one of these days.”
In response to Ms Foto’s claims, Mr Gwagwadza did not dispute the allegations. However, he expressed concern regarding the well-being of their seven children. “I do not oppose what she is saying, but my only concern is where she plans to go with seven children and who will take her in,” he stated.
Magistrate Mukwesha, acknowledging the validity of Ms Foto’s plea, approved the application for a protection order. She emphasised the importance of both parties maintaining peace and refraining from further harassment or abuse.
In a separate case heard before the same court, another Harare woman, Nester Mutengezi, claimed that her in-laws repeatedly assaulted her while she was pregnant, allegedly in an attempt to force her to abort the pregnancy.
Mutengezi made the startling allegations before Magistrate Johanna Mukwesha, stating that the repeated attacks were intended to coerce her into terminating her pregnancy. “My mother-in-law’s sister and her two daughters teamed up to attack me, they don’t want me to give birth to a living baby,” she claimed.
She further alleged that her in-laws forcibly entered her bedroom by breaking down the door, solely for the purpose of assaulting her. “They forced entry into my bedroom by breaking my door just to assault me,” she said. “My whole body hurts and I need money for an urgent scan. I am afraid that after the bashing, if my baby is still okay.”
Mutengezi also informed the court that her in-laws were involved in an ongoing criminal matter at the Harare Magistrates’ Court. She sought a protection order to prevent her in-laws from further assaulting, stalking, and threatening to evict her from their shared property.
“We live on the same land with separate demarcations that we inherited from my mother in-law, however, they are now claiming ownership and demanding that I vacate the premises,” she explained. “I have nowhere else to go and I need protection from their wayward behaviour.”
Alice Bunhu, the sister of Mutengezi’s mother-in-law, refuted the allegations, claiming that she and her daughters were also suffering at the hands of Mutengezi, who she accused of labelling her a witch and a prostitute.
“My daughters and I have never assaulted her, we have been in-and-out-of-courts over false allegations that we are now tired and want this to stop,” Bunhu stated. “How can she say we stalk her when we all live on the same land, we don’t have to stalk her to know what she is doing because we see her all the time.”
Alice’s daughters, Ruth and Theresa, echoed their mother’s sentiments, denying the claims that they had assaulted Mutengezi. “She is lying about everything, we have never harmed her, she calls our mother a witch and prostitute without being provoked,” Ruth said.
Theresa added, “The day she insulted our mother, we then went to the police station but when we got there she had already made the first report and we got arrested after she told the police we had attacked her.”
Magistrate Mukwesha, after hearing the conflicting accounts, granted Mutengezi a protection order, urging all four women to set aside their differences and maintain peace.
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