The ManicaPost
Mercy Ngwebvu Weekender Correspondent
AN elderly woman who is facing incessant assaults from her brother’s six children, accusing her of possessing goblins has approached the courts seeking a protection order against the marauding nephews.Rina Tareya (60) from Marange told the court that she is being accused of causing mysterious illnesses in the family because of goblins she is wrongly alleged to possess.
Appearing before Mr Langton Mukwengi at the Mutare Civil Courts, Tareya complained that her late brother’s children were accusing her of witchcraft and were in the habit of insulting and assaulting her whenever they please.
“Ever since my brother died, his children have been labeling me a witch. They want me to jump to one n’anga to another so that we ascertain why there is a mysterious illness within the family. Whenever I turn down their request to visit n’angas, they start insulting me or even assaulting me.
“I am now old and cannot handle six children throwing accusations and insults at me. Before my husband died they would not go to the extent of assaulting me because he would protect me. Now that he is dead, I need the law to protect me. I don’t want these people in my home and I want them to stop speaking to me,” said the embittered Tareya.
Asked why they were harassing their aunt, one of Tareya’s nephews, Godfrey told the court that they had every right to consult her because she was the only surviving member in their father’s family so she should give them all the answers to their questions.
Said Godfrey: “There are a lot of family matters that need to be taken care of and because our aunt is the only one left in our father’s family, she needs to tell us what we want to know. There is no way we can stop talking to her because she knows what is going on. My sister Gladys suffers from mysteriously severe cramps and we want to get to the bottom of it, with her help of course.
“We have consulted three different faith healers and all of them told us that our aunt is in possession of goblins which need to be exorcised if our family is going to be spared from the mysterious illnesses that are currently terrorising it.
“Our problem with her is that she refuses to consult the faith healers with us and it gives us the feeling that she has something to hide.”
Responding to this accusation, Tareya said her hands were clean and if anything, her brother’s children should have surely seen the goblins in her home because they were in the habit of ransacking her house from time to time.
“My hands are clean. These children come to my house from time to time and ransack it leaving everything upside down, but they still claim that I have goblins.
“Why is it that they have never bumped into any one of them? This issue has been going on for over two years now and I am now tired of the barbarism displayed by my brother’s children.
“The law has to protect me because they have gone out of hand,” she said.
After weighing both sides of the story, Mr Mukwengi granted the protection order to Tareya saying the old woman was entitled to her peace.
Said Mukwengi: “You have no right to intimidate or harass your aunt despite whatever differences you may have with her. You just need to solve your disputes amicably. The protection order to Rina Tareya is hereby granted.”
