By Loide Jason
OTAMANZI – An elderly 61-year-old man crippled in a vehicle accident some four years ago has accused his long-time live-in lover of abuse and depriving him of his “congugal rights”.
The complainant says his lover of 12 years has now developed a habit of going on lengthy drinking bouts only to come back home at midnight.
Paulus Mbwiti says just a week ago his girlfriend Linea Kaluli beat him on several occasions and reportedly used vulgar language against him.
“My girlfriend does not care for me, all she does is wake up early in the morning to go to the cuca-shop only to return at midnight without cooking for me.
“If I tell her I am hungry she just insults me and also insults my mother,” said a tearful Mbwiti who resides at Otamanzi village.
“I am suffering despite the fact that I have a girlfriend. We sleep in separate bedrooms and if I politely ask for my conjugal rights she only submits if I pay her N$200 or N$100 and if I am broke she brushes me off,” he agonised.
Mbwiti is so tired of the “bedroom terrorism” that he has hinted he will approach the court for a protection order to shield him from his lover.
Mbwiti says he tries his best to put food on the table using the N$650 grant he receives from government but still she does not cook for him.
Mbwiti was crippled when he was run over by a vehicle on a farm in Rehoboth where he worked.
“What hurts me the most is that whenever my girlfriend comes from the cuca-shop she wakes me with a string of insults. She does not have respect and if I answer back she beats me,” he lamented.
When a New Era journalist arrived at the couple’s homestead the accused was reportedly again on one of her drinking sprees. Mbwiti was lying in the hut nursing the wounds of a recent attack from his lover. He narrated he was passing blood in his urine after she allegedly hit him on his private parts.
“As we are speaking now I am peeing blood because I was beaten here (pointing to his private parts). I don’t know why she is abusing me like this,” he said.
A tearful Mbwiti said during their 12-year live-in relationship she bore him three children but she has since chased away all their offspring.
He begged the Otamazi Constituency Councillor Johannes Iiyambo to help him report the abuse to the relevant authorities for possible action.
When approached for comment Kaluli his girlfriend did not deny beating Mbwiti but she claimed she does this in retaliation for his attacks.
“I don’t start the assaults, I only beat him in retaliation for his assaults,” she said.
On the claim she deprives him of his conjugal rights and only submits to his sexual cravings upon receipt of N$200 or N$100 in payment, she said: “That man is mean. He does not give me money to buy cosmetics but for me to get money I have to ask him to pay me if he wants to sleep with me,” she said.
She also claimed she only frequents the cuca-shop once she has completed cooking and other chores.
“In the fight last week I only beat him because he slapped me when I asked him money for soap,” she said.
She politely told New Era that her accuser is not supportive and she will not allow him to sleep with her for nothing while she does not have soap.
The constituency councillor for Otamanzi Johannes Iiyambo said the case is the first of its kind in his constituency and he was very unhappy with it.
He urged the couple to respect each other and avoid unnecessary fights that will have adverse effects on the well-being of their children.