MAN DIVORCED AFTER MAINTENANCE SECRET

A BULAWAYO man was divorced by his wife after she discovered that he was paying maintenance for another child sired out of wedlock.

This emerged in court yesterday when Ms Tendai Shoniwa dragged Wellington Zvokuomba to court for defaulting on paying maintenance.

Ms Shoriwa told the court that Zvokuomba was not paying maintenance since he was ordered by the Bulawayo magistrate court to pay $40 in January 2017 and owes $520. She requested the court to issue a garnish order and order Zvokuomba to pay arrears of $260 in two months,  at the end of March and the remaining in April.

“Your Honour since the court gave an order he has paid only one month and has defaulted up to now. I request that the money be garnished from his salary and he pays half of the debt in March and the other half in April,” she said.

Zvokuomba said he could not afford to pay the money as he was being paid $180 which is half of his salary. He said he only paid maintenance for one month and defaulted due to challenges he was facing.

“I am facing financial challenges. I was married when she applied for maintenance and after my wife discovered about the maintenance, she took all our property and our two children and went back to her parents’ house,” he said.

“She also went to court to claim for maintenance and was awarded a default judgment of $300 as I had been deployed to another area and could not come to court.”

He said he had to apply for downward variation and was now paying $180. Bulawayo magistrate Miss Sharon Rosemani ordered Zvokuomba to pay $74 a month towards the arrears and $40 maintenance per month and the amount to be garnished from his salary.

“Forty dollars is a reasonable amount to which if you had not defaulted it would not have accumulated to $520,” she said. Chronicle

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