“I last had sex 10 years ago,” a 50-year-old woman told the court yesterday as she applied for a protection order against her husband, whom she accused of being abusive.
Musa Moyo of Bulawayo’s Tshabalala suburb pleaded with the magistrate to order her husband Ndabaningi Moyo (61) to stop sexually starving her.
Western Commonage magistrate Temba Chimiso heard how in the last 10 years, Musa’s husband has been denying her conjugal rights.
“Your Worship I have been married to the respondent for 26 years. However, in the last 10 years he has been so violent and abusive accusing me of causing his misfortunes. My husband does not buy me food and he does not even support me financially,” Musa said.
“It is more than 10 years now and we have not been sleeping together, starving me sexually. He is also in the habit of exposing his manhood to our children.”
Musa left the court in stitches when soon after Chimiso had granted her protection order, she raised her hand and asked the magistrate: “Your Worship how come (in your ruling) you did not touch the issue of my husband who is denying me sex?”
In response, the magistrate said: “That issue is not in my domain and there is nothing that I can do about that. This court only has a jurisdiction to grant interim protection orders against cases of physical abuse, assault and threats.”
When the magistrate asked Ndabaningi why he was in the habit of exposing his manhood to his children as well as assaulting his wife, he replied: “Your Worship my wife does not respect me as she comes home late everyday. I am not in the habit of exposing my manhood to our children.
“In fact it is just one incident where I happened to accidentally bump onto my daughter as I was coming from the toilet undressed as I had failed to locate my boxer shorts on that particular day.”
The magistrate shot back: “You should respect your wife and let me remind you that you should stop behaving like a boy because if you do so we will also treat you like one.”