An East Coast woman is terrified and at her wit’s end as her attempt to have her abusive husband removed from their home has been put on hold for four months after Magistrate Alex Moore gave the man that time to decide whether he wanted to leave the home or challenge the application for an occupational order.
It was after more than 20 years of mental, physical and emotional abuse that the woman sought to have some redress under the Domestic Violence Act and applied for several protection orders restraining her husband from verbally abusing her, emotionally and psychologically abusing her and physically abusing her. She also sought an occupational order removing the man from the home so as to allow her quiet and peaceful enjoyment.
However, when the matter was called before Magistrate Moore on January 4 last, he granted all the other interim orders except the occupational order. According to the case jacket, Magistrate Moore set the matter for April 5 for report and for the man to decide whether he wanted to remove from the home or challenge the application.
The woman, who has been living with relatives since last year because she is fearful for her life, left the court confused as she said she was not sure if the man would be forced to remove from the home and wondered where was the “paper” she had to take to the police for the man to be removed. It later had to be explained to her that the order was not granted and that this would not be decided until April 5.
In desperation, the woman approached this newspaper to have the matter highlighted stressing that she had sought assistance from various organisations—including the office of the Director of Public Prosecutions–and was advised to seek the interim orders. She said she was now even more confused and did not know where to turn. The man had been charged with abusing her several times and served sentences but would repeat the abuse as soon as he was released.
According to her affidavit, which would have been provided to Magistrate Moore in support of her application, she and the man were involved in a common-law relationship for about 24 years and the union bore two children who are now adults. She said the man has verbally and physically abused her from the inception of the relationship, consumes excessive amounts of alcohol regularly and when under the influence, “he would beat me about my body with various objects such as cutlass, wood, garden fork, among other things and he would also pelt me with various objects such as lamps and glass bowls.”
Further, she stated that the man verbally abused her “using the vilest expletives and by calling me all sorts of vile and demeaning names such as ‘whore’ often in the presence and hearing of our children.”
He threatened to kill her on numerous occasions and while she threatened to sever the relationship if he persisted in his abuse and said he would kill her if she did so.
The woman said she made numerous reports to the police and her husband was locked up on numerous occasions, charged several times and subsequently convicted on some of those occasions and served sentences ranging from three to eight months.
Sometime in the early part of last year, there was an incident involving her sister and her brother-in-law, as a result of which the man was charged and sentenced to six months in prison. He was released on October 1, 2012 and the following day after drinking, he asked her to rekindle the relationship. She refused and he later accosted her while she was at a shop.
“He cuffed me several times to my right eye causing it to become swollen and black and blue for several days. He also pulled my hair and lashed me in my back with a long piece of wood, which he picked up from the road and then he ran away,” the woman said in the affidavit.
She reported the matter to the police, but did not see the man again until November 19, 2012, when he went to the home to collect his clothing. The police were called and he was arrested and the woman said she was told to attend the Sparendaam Magistrate’s Court the following day. But when she got there she was told the matter was called at the Cove and John Magistrate’s Court and her attempts to find out the status proved futile. Following this, she has been hiding whenever she sees the man, who she is afraid of. On December 30, 2012, he returned home from a 15-day stint at sea and she immediately left the home to stay with a relative. Her daughter, who still lives at the house, later informed her that the intoxicated man proceeded to break all of the louvres on the left side of the house and numerous dishes in the kitchen. He also stated that he was going to kill her if caught her.
The woman said the man’s behaviour “has caused and continues to cause me pain, anguish, psychological trauma and distress” and as such she was applying for the orders. With the occupational order not being granted, the woman is not sure where she will live as she cannot remain at her relatives indefinitely.
