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Lethokuhle Moyo Court Reporter
A LOBENGULA man yesterday accused a magistrate of refusing to listen to his side of the story over a maintenance garnish order and threatened to quit his job to fix his estranged wife.
Charles Gushungo, a student nurse, was dragged to court by Oppah Chitambo who had applied for the order, after he fell behind by $240 on maintenance payments. Bulawayo Magistrate Sheunesu Matova granted the order which prompted Gushungo to argue with him.

Gushungo who earns a net salary of $140 per month told the magistrate that he will quit his job so that the court would not be able to effect the ruling. He said, if he keeps his job, he would be left with too little to motivate him to keep going to work.

“Your worship, how about me? The court is supposed to consider my situation as well. I am a student, I need to buy books and I need a lot of things for my education,” he said.
“I understand that I should maintain the child but the money is just too little to sustain myself. I have also been liaising with Chitambo but it seems like someone is trying to fix me.”

He further accused Chitambo’s parents who are taking care of his child of lack of hygiene saying that his son developed a skin disease which according to him shows that there is no hygiene at his in-laws place.

Magistrate Matova ordered him to stop arguing.
“Listen, you do not argue with me. You have to comply with the order because it seems like you have been failing to support your child for the past four months,” said Matova.

“You want to quit your job because of a garnish order? We simply want the best for your child. How do you know that there is lack of hygiene at your in-laws’ place when you are not staying with them?”

Chitambo told the magistrate that Gushungo was lying that he has been liaising with them.
“Your worship, I stay with my parents and they are the ones that are supporting us. My child is supposed to be going to school but he is not because Gushungo does not want to give us the money,” she said.

She added that whenever she asks for money from Gushungo for the upkeep of their child, he asks her where he is supposed to get the money.