Use lockdown time to get to know your spouse better

While the nationwide lockdown is nearing the end of its first week, reports of incidents of domestic violence are increasing. Dr Bardwell Mufunwaini, well-known director of Munna Ndi Nnyi, said that an unprecedented number of domestic violence cases had been reported in the past week.

Munna Ndi Nnyi is a non-profit entity that deals with issues of victim empowerment, domestic violence, spousal counselling and reconciliation at community level.

“The rise of fights within families at this time clearly shows that most spouses are not used to spending quality time together,” he said. He said most partners were used to the idea and act of waking up every day in the morning and going to work where they would spend the day communicating with colleagues, friends and clients.

“By the time they get home, it is either already in the night or evening, so they have less time to spend with spouses and children because they are both physically and mentally exhausted,” Mufunwaini said. “They just munch on food and head to the bedroom to sleep, only to wake up the next morning to walk out to work.”

He added that now that partners were faced with the situation where they had to switch off phones, not because they had been cheating and they were afraid that lovers might call, but because innocuous calls might be misconstrued. “An innocent friend or colleague from the opposite sex might call, and the partner might react in an accusatory manner, saying the other has been cheating,” he said. “You can see that many partners are only staying together, but they are strangers to each other!”

He called for spouses to utilize the 21-day lockdown period to the maximum as a bonding time. “In that way, we'll have fewer or zero cases of domestic violence in our communities during this lockdown,” Mufunwaini said.

Mufunwaini can be reached on 079 595 0010.

Date:03 April 2020

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.

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