*Pensioner drags abusive husband and children to court
A 70-year-old woman alleging threats of domestic violence from her husband and children this week dragged her family to court to seek relief.
Tables however turned as the Molepolole pensioner, Kgakgamatso Mogale’s children exposed several disturbing issues of abuse by their mother.
In a family of 10 children, the accused five children were Anah Mosenene, Kaone Mogale, Sheila Mogale, all females together with Kelly Mogale who was absent in court and their brother, Daniel Mogale.
The children brought the family skeletons tumbling out of the closet giving details of their dysfunctional relationship with their mother that left the court in utter shock.
Addressing the court in a thunderous voice, Kgakgamatso had started by stating her case of how her children were in the habit of insulting her in the presence of their father.
“My husband says I am a bitch, I sleep with foreigners with big penises and they have spoilt my vagina. He has also accused me of cheating with his nephew and the children say I am a witch, they have badly abused me for so long now,” she explained and went on to appeal to the court to caution her children from taking sides in her fights with her husband.
The court heard that the family drama began in June after Kgakgamatso’s husband, Mothibedi Mogale made a concoction that induces vomiting, a ritual known as ‘go phalatsa’ in Setswana.
Instead of just vomiting, the concoction however induced diarhoea too and his daughter, Anah took him to seek healing at a ZCC Church, which the wife was against.
Mothibedi said the wife was so annoyed by his visit to ZCC that she even tried to bar the church from holding prayers to cleanse their home of evil spirits.
“A ZCC pastor prophesied that there will be a funeral in the family and she will be the one questioned on the cause of death,” revealed Mothibedi in court as he stood supported by walking crutches.
Further explaining the bizarre problems plaguing his family the embattled husband said, “There are two ladies who influence my wife on such things; I do not want those people to interfere in my family. Also since my nephew started getting involved, things have become so messed up that we even took the issue to the main kgotla but it remains unresolved.”
The eldest daughter, Anah told the court that she fell out with her mother over the ZCC church issue. Her husband, she revealed has advised her to stay away from her parents’ home but she won’t stop visiting them because she wants her father to get well.
Meanwhile Daniel told of how his mother started abusing him while he was in primary school by pulling him out of a standard 5 class to go and look after cattle.
“There was a certain kraal in the bush where cattle were slaughtered and at night a truck would come to collect the meat. My sister named Tebogo did not like so she took me back to school, but even then it was still difficult for me to focus on my studies as I sometimes missed classes to attend to cattle post duties,” he bitterly narrated before he explained that his mother later literally tossed his clothes out of the yard and threw him out of the house.
Further detailing his mother’s abuse Daniel said his mother had used his names without his permission to apply for a ploughing field which caused the Land Board to refuse to allocate him a field arguing that he already had one.
He told the court that he only managed to own a field after lodging an appeal with the Ministry of Lands and Housing, which ordered that her mother give him the plot registered in his name.
“I grew up abused. If I were someone else I would have developed a bad attitude towards life and ended up n prison,” he sadly concluded.
Magistrate Resheng advised the children to respect their mother. “She has the powers to curse you and those powers can work against you,” said the magistrate before she ordered the children to stay away from their parents’ home and only check on their father by visiting once in a while.
The magistrate however dismissed the case because there was no proof of domestic violence.