DRIVEN ROUND THE BEND
Wife assaults hubby for confiscating car after catching another man behind the wheel
A school teacher’s estranged wife needs a lesson on how to control her temper after she saw red, turning violent during a heated argument over a car.
35-year-old Gonewe Ramataopane was hauled before Maun Customary Court last week where she pleaded guilty to assault common for striking her soon-to-be exhusband in the arm with a stone.
It seems the trouble started when Motswedi Ramataopane spotted another man driving the car he had lent his wife. The dejected husband told court Gonewe walked away from their matrimonial home around September last year and is currently living with another man.
Motswedi added that although he allowed his wife to take one of their cars, it was on the condition she does not let this other man drive it.
“I told her that even though I was allowing her to use the car, I did not want to see another man driving it. She has a habit of doing this, which is completely against our separation agreement,” he said, his wife listening intently just a few metres away.
Thus, on 19th February, Motswedi’s patience snapped when he caught the other man cruising in town behind the wheel of his car.
According to the police, he approached the male driver and confiscated the keys to his vehicle - an act that infuriated Gonewe when she found out.
“She then followed the husband to demand the car and, when he refused, she took a stone and hit him on the right arm,” reads the police statement.
Admitting she was at fault, Gonewe pleaded for leniency, noting she has young children who require her care and cryptically insisting there were reasons why she acted as she did.
While she did not clarify her reasons, when Kgosi Bringle Dithapo asked if she no longer wanted her husband, she explained they already have a case related to that before another court. In the end, Gonewe was given a two-month suspended jail sentence.