Voetsek

COURT EVICTS ABUSIVE WIFE FROM HOME

Molepolole Magistrates Court was the scene of insults and acrimony as a couple’s six years of holy matrimony came to an unholy and bitter end.

In scenes that would not have looked out of place in popular soapie Generations The Legacy, the drama ended with the magistrate ordering an apparently abusive wife to leave the family home pending the finalisation of their divorce.

The court had earlier heard testimony from Kgosiesele Kgosiesele, 38, telling how his schoolteacher wife Seonyatseng Kgosiesele, 37, belittled him by saying she was a degree holder while he was merely an uneducated driver with nothing valuable to bring to the home.

To add insult to injury she went as far as telling him that she did not want to be seen walking around with him in public, referring to him as low class.

Last December, the Physical Education teacher at Thamaga Junior Secondary School opened a threat to kill case against her husband, which resulted in him spending Christmas in police custody before being released on New Year’s eve.

Seonyatseng is said to have informed their parents that she wanted her husband jailed for seven years and intended to divorce him while he languished in prison.

According to Kgosiesele, since his release from jail his wife now refers to him as a convict.

“On December 31st I made a party which the parents also attended. Later that night when we went to bed, my wife told me not to touch her. When I questioned her about it she asked me if I wanted to go back to prison.

“I went outside the yard to sleep in the car but she later sent a message that I should come home and sleep,” he told court, adding that at that point he was hopeful their issues had been resolved.

However, it appears Seonyatseng had not forgiven her husband as she later told him that if he continued with his ‘demands’ she would report him for rape.

“She says I am not a man and should be castrated and then removed from the society,” he added miserably.

Kgosiesele pleaded with the court to protect him and his children, saying that he had sought assistance from the District Commissioner’s Office, social workers and churches but without resolution.

The couple are parents to two boys, 14 and 5, the eldest being from his wife’s previous relationship.

In her response, Seonyatseng told the court that her husband was a liar and that when they met with their parents on December 31st Kgosiesele requested her to dismiss the case of threat to kill.

She refused, claiming it was not the first time he had threatened her.

Despite the tension, she revealed the day her husband was released from prison and on January 13th and 14th they met as husband and wife and had sex.

She added, “He only wanted us to get married in community of property as I am the one who can get many loans, but I have currently taken out a loan and bought the truck he is using.”

She suggested to Magistrate Kefilwe Resheng, “Both of us can move away from the home, he moves and I go to back to my parents’s house until the divorce. He should also give me the car to collect my things.”

The magistrate also gave the parents an opportunity to respond and they confirmed that Seonyatseng has been abusing her husband. They said that they had tried to unite them but their effort bore no fruit as they only ended up in court.

One of the parents also told how Seonyatseng abused her eldest child, assaulting him with a broomstick until it broke on his body.

In her defence she denied abusing the child saying that as a teacher she knew how to reprimand a child.

In his summing up, Magistrate Resheng suggested to Seonyatseng that she should not have bothered marrying her husband but rather have looked for someone of her degree level.

“How do you say to your husband that he needs to be castrated and you do not want to be associated with him? You could have left him. You do not demean someone to the level where you say you are educated whist someone is not.”

He added, “ I am very concerned, please stop abusing your child.”

In his ruling, the magistrate in favour of Kgosiesele, ordered that he should stay at their matrimonial home with the children whilst the wife should stay away from home and only visit the children at the weekend.

Ironically as the couple left the court they were seen chatting amicably, with Seonyatseng asking her husband to transport her home to collect her things. Together they left the scene.