Daily Sun (July 7 2014) - AT first, Rose thought her husband was a kind man when he brought her tea in bed.
But the tea tasted bad and Rose remembered he had done the same thing before . . . when she found out about his other wife.
HE TOLD HER IT WAS LOVE MUTHI, BUT ROSE BELIEVES HE WAS TRYING TO GET RID OF HER.
"I no longer trust this man," she said. "This also happened in 2010 when I found out he had taken another wife. They had been married for four years and he never told me about it." Rose Shabangu (51) of Winterveldt, Tshwane said at the time he also started bringing her tea in bed but she didn't drink it. She poured it into the drain instead. This time around he even insisted that she drink the tea.
"Why don't you ever finish the tea I make for you?" he asked. Now Rose was even more suspicious and when she turned the cup sideways she could see something strange at the bottom of the cup. "It didn't taste like normal tea at all," said Rose. But she kept quiet until last Thursday when he came home. "I demanded to know what was wrong with the tea," she said. "My husband of 32 years had nothing to say. He just hung his head in shame."
Rose decided to break her silence and inform her family about the strange stuff floating in the bottom of the mug. A meeting was called between the families of the wife and the husband. Rose's older sister, Sarah Nleya (61), made her feelings clear. "We really feel bad and we no longer trust this man. My sister and my brother-in-law must separate, finish and klaar!" Rose's husband, Jonathan Mdluli, apologetically defended his action. He said the strange substance was a special love muthi. "I got it from an inyanga from Mozambique for R50. It meant no harm; it is to increase love and affection between a couple," he said.
But his deeply offended wife refused to believe him. As far as Rose is concerned, he betrayed her trust. She accused her husband of more than three decades of lying and being dishonest. "We have been together since 1982 and I have always been there for him," she said. "Even when he was unemployed and during his sickness. But still he took a second wife and tried to feed me the muthi," said the angry woman. She and her family are convinced that her husband was trying to get rid of her. Rose's uncle, July Sibanyoni (46), told the People's Paper the family no longer wanted anything to do with Mdluli. "It is the end of the chapter between the two families," he said.
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