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Chido Nyamuyaruka Court Correspondent

A mother got a protection order against her son when the two went to court, but the civil magistrate could not legally bar the son and his dogs from the family home as this would involve a separate legal action in another court over who owns the property.

Mrs Patience Chauke (55) appeared before Harare Civil Magistrate Mrs Theressa Machingura seeking the protection order against Dereck Chauke (28) since he physically and emotionally abuses her and has even threatened to kill her, she said, and had chased her away from the house.

“My own son has become violent,” she said. “He keeps dogs at the house and he’d recently chased me away from home because the dogs had broken out and l had to look for them. It is my own house, but he claims it is his father’s house so he has all the rights to chase me away.”

Mrs Chauke alleged that her son has always been very tough and heartless towards her.

“My relatives and friends cannot come to my house because he threatens to set dogs on them and I’m always confined in his abusive custody,” she said. “It is as if he has become mentally unstable.”

Mrs Chauke said her son had financially drained her.

“He is always asking for money,” she said. “I have retired from work and l don’t have other sources of income.”

Mrs Chauke said her son was reckless and she might lose all her property.

“At one point when l returned home, I figured out he was staying with a girlfriend at the house and they had negligently left the stoves on for the whole night,” she said. “My house is going to burn one day and I’ll lose everything.”

Dereck in response said: “I only told my mother that I don’t want to see her again because l was angry.

“I was beaten by people from my community because of my mother and l sustained a deep injury on my eye … she hates me because of my father’s sins.”

Mrs Machingura granted the protection order, but said part of the application was misplaced.

Mrs Chauke would have to go through the specific courts with jurisdiction for property ownership.

She dismissed the part of the application that sought for Dereck and the dogs to be barred from home.