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Chief Court Reporter
Society should play a leading role in the elimination of domestic violence which has claimed many lives across the country, a High Court judge has said. Justice Tawanda Herbert Chitapi said domestic violence could only be eliminated through combined efforts as law enforcement agencies could not contain the problem alone.

He also urged non-governmental organisations, schools and the community to join hands and preach zero tolerance towards domestic violence.

“Our society should graduate into adopting a zero tolerance for domestic violence,” said Justice Chitapi. “This is the only way that domestic violence can be eliminated if not reduced to negligible levels.”

Justice Chitapi made the remarks while sentencing a Kuwadzana woman, Mitchel Chiteure, to an effective two-year jail term after convicting her of killing her husband, Denver Chitsungo, in a poverty-induced brawl.

She was convicted of culpable homicide and slapped with six years in jail with four years suspended on condition of good behavior.

The judge said cases of domestic violence were on the increase.

He said violence was now being committed not only by men on women but vice-versa as well.

“It is a fallacy that the tide can be tamed by courts alone,” said Justice Chitapi. “The courts apply the law but are not counsellors. Society must play its role.”

He said domestic violence found its roots in social, cultural, economic and historical undertones, among other factors.

The legislature passed the Domestic Violence Act (Chapter 5:16), which provides courts with powers to issue, among others things, peace orders and criminal sanctions for violent conduct between spouses.

But this has proved to be insufficient to reduce cases of domestic violence.

In the case of Chiteure, the cause of the altercation was economic abuse.

Chiteure and Chitsungo quarrelled over food.

In her defence, Chitere said she struck her late husband with a pot on the head as she acted in self-defence but exceeded the bounds of self-defence.

She said on the day in question they quarrelled over Chitsungo’s financial irresponsibility after she accused him of preferring to buy a cellphone handset when there was no food in the house.

She had also accused her husband of spending money with girlfriends neglecting his family. Chiteure claimed that Chitsungo did not take the accusations lightly.

A fight ensued resulting in Chiteure striking Chitsungo on the head with a pot killing him.