By PASSY HAACHIZO –
A FORTY-EIGHT-YEAR-OLD John Laing Township man told a fully-packed Kanyama local court how he was shocked upon finding a text message in his wife’s BlackBerry phone sent to her lover whom she was telling how much she missed him.
The text message in question read: “Goodnight Baibe. Missing you my love”, which Davis Siampazanga, 48, said he had copied before his wife Peggy Siampazanga, 41, deleted from the phone.
Siampazanga told the court that after finding the text message in question in the BlackBerry phone which he had exchanged with Peggy on advice by one of their children; his wife ran away and sat by the road side next to a named hospital.
“Your honour, the message is here and it was written around 19:45 hours but she deleted it from the phone to hide evidence. Luckily enough I had already copied it,” he said.
Siampazanga married Peggy of the same Township in 1992 when he paid three cattle and K290 as dowry and have five children together.
Siampazanga said everything was alright until 1997 when his wife ran away from home only to discover that she was with another man.
“There was a time when a certain village headman sat us together and reconciled us but a few days later she started coming home late, at times she would lie that she was going for a kitchen party. This time I can’t even touch her breasts,” Siampazanga said.
He said it was perplexing that his wife had turned into a polygamist by having a lover and wondered why Peggy had the guts to sue him for divorce when she was the one who was the cause of the marital problems.
In her statement, Peggy attributed the predicament to her husband’s physical abuse by using all sorts of weapons within his reach.
“Last month, he almost gunned me down. Had it not been for my son’s intervention, I would have been gone by now. This is how I spent a night outside my matrimonial home,” Peggy said.
Peggy told the court that her husband had lost respect for her but she tolerated his HIV status when she was negative.
Magistrate Ackim Phiri sitting with Daniel Phiri ended the marriage upon noticing that it had failed irretrievably.
Mr  Phiri urged Peggy to get married elsewhere where there were no rules and told the couple to share the children.
The court ordered Siampazanga to get three children while the other two would be under their mother’s care but that Siampazanga was to continue maintaining the two children with K700 monthly.

Court warns property ‘grabbers’

By YVONNE CHATE –
A NDOLA local court has warned families to desist from property grabbing to prevent family wrangles.
Local court magistrate Oscar Kalaba said families should stop grabbing property from widows and widowers because it was a crime.
Mr Kalaba said this during the case hearing in which Davison Ntambo of Ndola’s Pamodzi Township was chosen to be the administrator of his late cousin Annie Fwankila’s properties.
Mr Ntambo told the court that his family with the cousin’s husband agreed to take in possession his late cousin’s vehicle which was in the husband’s name.
He told the court that they grabbed the property because his cousin had contributed a larger amount towards the purchasing of the motor vehicle.

He exposes his private parts to our kids — wife

By PASSY HAACHIZO –
ABOMINATION has occurred in the family as 52-year-old Lusaka man resorts to exposing his private parts in full view of his children.
Bertha Chanda of John Laing Township further told the Kanyama local court that her 52-year-old husband John Manjimela of the same area was also in a habit of urinating in the house and outside when drunk in the presence of the children and neighbours.
This was a case in which Chanda, who has been married to Manjimela for 32 years, sued for reconciliation.
Chanda told the court that the two have four children together but that Manjimela boasted of having other children with girlfriends whenever he was drunk.
According to Chanda, her husband had lost morals and was fond of insulting her everytime he got drunk and that he was a brutal man who never cared about the family’s well-being.
“This pant here, he is the one who tore it and this panga is the one he wanted to slice me with,” Chanda said as she produced the items in court as evidence.
She said there was a time when her husband wanted to defecate in the house after taking assorted beer instead of attending to the call of nature in the pit latrine outside but was only stopped by a “Good
Samaritan” who threatened to beat him if he went ahead.
“Two days ago he almost beat me after unleashing insults at me.
Tenants do not even sleep when he gets drunk. I am worried that he may kill me one day for I normally blackout,” Chanda said.
She disclosed also that there was a time when Manjimela ordered the whole family to spend nights in the poultry house.
In his defence, Manjimela said he was surprised that his wife was blaming him when her 41-year-old relative defecated in the matrimonial home at noon recently.
Manjimela disputed taking sachet spirits popularly known as Tujilijili, Junta and other types of beer but that he preferred opaque, which he said made him love his wife more.
In passing judgment, Magistrates Ackim Phiri, Daniel Phiri and Serah Nyendwa failed to reconcile the two but urged Chanda to sue for divorce if her husband continued misbehaving.
“You old man, 50 years is not a joke. You must change. Can’t you see that she is sick? So if he continues with this behavior sue him for divorce,” Phiri said.
Magistrate Phiri ordered Manjimela to desist from portraying shameful behavior as his age did not allow him to do so.

‘She’s not carrying my child’

By PASSY HAACHIZO
A TWENTY-FOUR-YEAR-OLD Chawama Township man accused of impregnating his girlfriend, told the Kanyama local court that he believes it is another man who is responsible for the pregnancy.
This is a case in which Patrick Lungu, 24, has been sued by Charles Chisala, 54, of Kuku Township for impregnating his 21-year-old daughter Mary.
Lungu said it was sad that he was accused of impregnating Mary when there was another man named Alfred whom he shared the 21-year-old with.
Lungu also wondered why Mary’s parents insisted that he was the one responsible for their daughter’s pregnancy, letting Alfred to go scot-free and yet he had been in a relationship with her too.
He was shocked to be dragged to court even before a DNA test he had been requesting for had been done.
“On March 13, I told Mary that I wanted to marry her, I even gave her two weeks to leave the other boyfriend.
“After being in a relationship with her, I found her with a man by the name of Alfred and I just left him with her,” Lungu said.
Lungu narrated further that Mary was later dumped at his parents’ home where his mother found her after returning from seeing a pastor.
Mr Chisala told the court that his daughter was carrying Lungu’s five-month pregnancy but he had refused to take responsibility.
Mary confirmed having sex with Lungu on several occasions at his home and that she left Alfred a long time ago before she fell pregnant for Lungu.
“He even introduced me to his mum, I also slept at his home three times and I last had sex with Lungu in July.
Alfred is a married man who has been coming to visit my cousin and not me,” Mary said.
She insisted that the only man she had sex with apart from the first boyfriend was Patrick and not Alfred, and that she was a learned person who had reached Grade Seven to know that it was Lungu responsible for the pregnancy especially that he had also given her K50 for a pregnancy test.
Magistrates Ackim Phiri and Daniel Phiri adjourned the case to a later date.
“Come back next week with Alfred so that we can conclude the case and be careful with men,” Mr Phiri said.

Couple divorced over Whatsapp nude photo

By PASSY HAACHIZO –
THE Matero local court heard how a 28-year-old Emmasdale wife found a picture of a naked woman in her husband’s phone sent through WhatsApp.
Chiwanza Nambela also found a WhatsApp message sent by her husband asking his girlfriend to send a picture of her private parts so that he could sleep well.
Nambela sued Mulubwa Chanda, 40, a Chinese interpreter, for divorce.
Nambela told the court that Chanda was charged three herds of cattle before she got married to him in 2011 and they have two children together.
The couple stayed in harmony only for three months until Chanda started drinking beer excessively from Monday to Sunday, as well as insulting and beating his wife.
“I recently took him to Victim Support Unit. He even accused me of being a prostitute without even caring that I have a one-month-old baby,” Nambela said.
Nambela said her husband’s strange behaviour prompted her to check in his phone and was perplexed to find a picture of his girlfriend’s private parts besides several women as his WhatsApp contacts.
“At one time I shouted at one of his girlfriends. I broke his (Chanda) phone although he apologised. He comes home at 01:00 hours drunk and wakes us up with the children, he even threatened to vomit on a one-month-old baby but after I removed the baby, he vomited on the floor,” she said.
But Chanda disputed his wife’s statement, saying he would not want to be divorced as he tolerated her even when she bit his fingers during the previous fight that had ensued.
“I go home late to avoid talking too much; I make sure I reach home when she is already asleep. Actually I recently lost US$400 and on the part of showing her my salary, I cannot because I am just a business executive,” Chanda said.
Asked by the court if he had girlfriends, Chanda said he did not have but Nambela intervened by disputing his answer, saying she was aware that he had several girlfriends in Emmasdale where he was renowned as “big buyer” in bars.
In passing judgment, senior Magistrate Lewis Mumba sitting with Pauline Newa granted the couple divorce.
“The court has found a number of problems such as lack of communication, commitment and violence. Therefore, divorce is granted,” Mr Mumba said.
The court ordered Chanda to compensate Nambela with K8,000, the initial payment being K1,000 followed by monthly instalments of K500 and to be paying the children maintenance fee of K600 per month, while property acquired together should be shared equally.

‘He returns home when broke, sick’

By PASSY HAACHIZO –
A LUSAKA woman has complained that her husband is fond of leaving home, only to reappear when he is broke or sick.
Agnes Tembo, 39, from the Reformed Churches of Zambia (RCZ), told the Kanyama local court that her 42-year-old husband Christopher Mwanza disappeared from home for a long time and left her to look after five children single-handedly.
The two got married in 1996 after Mwanza paid K500 of K1,500 bride price but problems started in 2007.
Tembo complained that the first time her husband left home was in 2007 and only appeared in 2010 looking like a prodigal son and she had to involve the church for intervention.
“There is no sex in the house, and he does not even support the children. His conscience does not even haunt him,” Tembo said.
Tembo said she was tired of her husband’s unbecoming behaviour of coming back home from his escapades whenever he was broke or sick.
She wanted him to explain before the court why he treated her like a slave, saying she suffered the past two years looking for her children’s school fees through selling water packed in plastics.
She said Mwanza was a drunkard who flirted around with other women at the expense of his family.
Tembo said her husband spent one week sleeping and refused to have sex with her even when she gave him a condom four days after his return.
In defence, Mwanza said he was not married to another woman except that he was in business of selling fish and traversed to and from Kasumbalesa Border.
Senior local court magistrates Daniel Phiri and Ackim Phiri granted divorce after failing to reconcile the couple.

Ndola man fined K5,000 for damage

By YVONNE CHATE –
A TWENTY-FIVE-YEAR-OLD man of Ndola has been fined K5,000 for impregnating a 22-year-old woman.
Lapukeni Musonda of Kansenshi Township in Ndola was on Thursday fined by local court magistrate Oscar Kalaba sitting with magistrate Rosemary Muke, after he admitted to impregnating his girlfriend outside marriage.
Musonda was sued by Henry Shiloh for impregnating his daughter Mercy.
Mr Shiloh told the court that on unknown dates in February last year, he discovered that his daughter was pregnant and her daughter led them to the man who impregnated her.
He said both his family and that of Musonda resolved the two will get married.
Mr Shiloh said Musonda agreed to take responsibility of the pregnancy and his daughter but since their meeting in October last year, he had not heard from him.
“Musonda agreed to take responsibility of my daughter and the pregnancy and promised to marry her but up to now he has not done anything,” he said
The local court magistrate ordered that Musonda should pay the K5, 000 to his in-laws to be in 10 installments with effect from October 19, this year.