By Stanford Chiwanga-SundayNews 10/19/09
A WOMAN from Bulawayo’s Nkulumane suburb’s attempt to cool herself under the shade of a tree by sleeping half-naked, wearing only a “bum short’’, turned sour on Sunday when her husband assaulted and chased her away from their matrimonial home after discovering that teenage boys from the neighbourhood were climbing on top of a brick wall to peep on her.
The husband, Mr Vincent Shoko (28), confirmed the incident. Relating the incident, Mr Shoko said he was so incensed by the fact that his wife’s nakedness had been exposed to other people that he lost his bearings and bashed her. “I know who told you this story, but it does not matter. Anyway, I do not deny that I beat her up but it is not true that I chucked her out of our house. She left of her own accord; she sought refuge at her parents’ home in Selbourne Park.
“If she thinks I am going to plead with her to come back, she is mistaken. Any man in my shoes could have reacted the same way that I did.
“She claims that she was not aware that the boys were peeping on her but I am convinced that she was basking in the glory of being a spectacle.
“This is not the first time that she has done it, last time I warned her to stop doing it but she chose not to listen. So I had to beat her to knock some sense back into her head,’’ said an unrepentant Mr Shoko.
The wife, Mrs Rejoice Shoko, initially refused to comment and hung up her phone, but when told that her husband had accused her of showing off her body to teenage boys, she opened up, accusing her husband of being a violent man.
“Vincent has a short fuse (temper) and this incident is proof of that. How can he beat me up for cooling off under the shade? In winter we used to sunbathe together, today he claims that he has a problem with that. He should grow up and stop being a hypocrite. There is nothing indecent about that because a very tall brick wall surrounds our house. In fact, those boys were violating my privacy by climbing on the wall to peep on me, if I did not have a good understanding I could have taken them to court,’’ said Mrs Shoko.
Mrs Shoko added that she would not be going back to her matrimonial home as long as her husband did not apologise for beating her up.
“He assaulted me and were it not for the fact that I love him, I could have taken him to the cleaners. But he is very lucky because I love him. But as long as he does not show remorse for his actions, I am staying put at my parents’ home. He should promise to never beat me again because I was not married to be a punching bag. My parents support my decision because they do not want me to be hurt,’’ she said.
A parent of one of the teenage boys told Sunday News, on condition of anonymity, that as much as she condemns the teenagers’ action, she believed that Mrs Shoko was not so innocent. She said: “Boys will be boys and Mrs Shoko should have been more cautious. Of course the boys are wrong and we told them that. They are not going to do it again but Mrs Shoko is also wrong. This is not a low-density suburb where she can afford the luxury of sleeping naked. This is a high-density suburb with small yards and as such most things are not that private. If she wants to walk around naked in her yard then she should be prepared to accept that now and then people are going to see her.’’
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