The ManicaPost
Tendai Gukutikwa Weekender Correspondent
A SAKUBVA man who last month made headlines for scalding his wife with hot cooking oil following an extra-marital dispute was sentenced to five years imprisonment.
Moses Marote was denying the attempted murder charges when he appeared before regional magistrate, Mr Livingstone Chipadza last Thursday. Mr Chipadza set aside two years of the sentence on condition of good behaviour.
His wife, Michelle Masango, sustained serious facial and chest burns after the vicious attack. Mr Malvern Musarurwa appeared for the State. The court heard that on July 17, Marote apologised to his wife for cheating on her and the matter was resolved before his mother-in-law.
The following morning, Marote woke up and went to the kitchen leaving the complainant in bed. She got the shock of her life when her husband poured hot cooking oil on her face. Masango cried for help and was rescued by neighbours who rushed her to Mutare Provincial Hospital.
In an interview at Mutare Provincial Hospital where she was recovering after being admitted in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit, Masango, said: “The whole thing started when my husband had an affair. When I discovered it, we argued about it. Things worsened when he could no longer do anything in bed. He left me and moved out in November last year.
“He only came back in March this year. I refused to accept him back, but he came with his relatives including his mother who cried as she begged me to change my decision. I then asked whether the problem that led to our separation had been solved. He lied to me that it had been solved.
“I accepted him back. However, from March to April he could not do anything in bed. I complained to my sisters that nothing had changed. He still has the problem that led to our separation.
“Things got so confusing when he said he had sought help from spiritualists and he was told that my aunt had caused that problem.”
Masango said her husband suggested giving her his young brother as husband as a way of keeping her in their family.
“Just when I finished sending a message to his mother, he hurled a pot full of hot cooking oil at my face and chest. I was in pain and cried out for help. I could not see,” she said.
