Woman wins protection order against husband who returned after 17 years in SA and demanded sex before STI tests

A Harare woman has been granted a five-year protection order against her husband, who returned from South Africa after 17 years away.

Ruth Zvauya appeared before the Harare Civil Court on Monday seeking protection from her husband, Obert Musayi. She told the court she has had no peace since his return.

Zvauya said she is afraid of contracting sexually transmitted infections following his long stay in South Africa and wants them both to get tested before being intimate.

She accused Musayi of pressuring her for sex before the tests and threatening to throw her out of their home when she refused.

Zvauya also accused her husband of throwing her belongings outside during arguments, interfering with household arrangements she had put in place while he was away, taking her food supplies, selling her chickens without her consent, and damaging her wheelbarrow.

Musayi denied forcing his wife to have sex with him. He said they had disagreements over intimacy even before he left for South Africa and that Zvauya would often say she was tired when he wanted to be intimate. He said they had appeared before the family court over the same issue.

On testing, Musayi said Zvauya has known his HIV status since 2007, when they were tested together. He tested positive while she tested negative.

He also denied deliberately damaging the wheelbarrow, saying he had used it to carry stones and bricks to build a toilet at their home. He said there was no toilet at the homestead when he returned, and that he used the bricks she accused him of taking to build it for both of them.

Magistrate Johanna Mukwesha granted the protection order, which will remain in force for five years. It bars Musayi from sexually harassing or insulting his wife and from chasing her from their home.

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