A distressed married man, Skhila Marokhu has found himself seeking the assistance of the court for his wife to maintain their two daughters.
The wife, 39-year-old Kenanao Marokhu last week Wednesday appeared for trial before Molepolole Magistrate Rosemary Khuto for failing to comply with the court order after she was ordered to pay the sum of P1, 500 for child maintenance every month.
Married in December 12th, 2008, the couple from Go- Rakgaimina ward, Molepolole had ups and downs in their marriage as the wife had earlier filed for divorce before Lobatse High Court and the matter was recently dismissed after she failed to appear before court twice.
In an interview, 45-year-old Skhila said he is currently staying with the couple ‘s two children, a 13-year-old doing Form 1 and the 5-year-old in pre-school while their mother is running a tuck-shop in Medie.
“For now I am not certain if my wife really loves me or she is just trying to avoid the maintenance case as she had abandoned me in 2017 when our last born was still 11-months-old and I struggled to raise the children alone. She only recently came back home after she was served with summons from the police” explained Skhila.
The court was told that Kenanao was served with summons failed to appear before court on October 4th, 2017 though she knew the date and the court made decision in her absence that she pays P1, 500 monthly as maintenance for the two children.
During trial Kenanao opted to remain silent and instead called one witness, being her mother Masego Othibetse.
Othibetse told the court that she did not know if Kenanao has been paying maintenance or not. “I didn’t know the status of the case, Skhila never came to me to complain that Kenanao deserted and neglected the children,” added Othibetse.
The prosecutor Sub Inspector Maureen Segokgo dismissed Othibetse’s evidence saying she was not of any assistance to the court as she was not even aware of the court order issued to Kenanao to pay maintenance.
“Prosecution served the accused person with all relevant documents regarding the order and she even admitted them during final case management conference that is why none of the witnesses was called to give evidence before court,” stated Segokgo further explaining that Kenanao had failed to pay the sum of P24 000 as total arrears.
In her response Kenano said she was dependent on her husband because she was unemployed and she did not know what to do.
“It means I should request for some money from my husband to clear the arrears. I made a mistake to leave the children to go and look for a job, I apologise for that,” said Kenanao who seemed not too bothered by the issue at hand.
When approached for comment, Skhila who is employed as a driver by the Molepolole Magistrate’s Court was adamant that his wife should find a way to pay her children’s arrears and continue to pay maintenance. The matter has been postponed for judgment on April 23rd.