By SARAH MWANZA –
A LUSAKA West woman shocked a fully-packed Matero local court for suing her husband for divorce after he refused to give her money to buy diapers.
Salome Chimbila, 21, told the court that last month she disserted her matrimonial home because her husband denied her money for diapers.
This was a case in which Chimbila sued Ronald Phiri, 30, for divorce after he refused to buy diapers for the baby.
Facts before the court were that the two got married in 2012 and have one child together, while problems in their home started shortly after they got married.
Chimbila said her husband was also in a habit of sending her packing whenever the two had an argument.
She said her husband had been accusing her of being dull and incapable of helping him in making serious decisions.
“He tells me that I add no value to his life because there is nothing meaningful I do to help him, not even advising him,” Chimbila said.
She said her husband had also on several occasions accused her of being a prostitute claiming that almost everyone in her family was a prostitute.
But Phiri accused his mother-in-law of being responsible for his wife’s decision to opt for divorce.
Phiri told the court that from the time he got married, his mother-in-law had never liked him and always incited his wife to leave him.
Magistrate Lewis Mumba granted the couple divorce with no compensation, while child custody was given to Chimbila and the court ordered Phiri to be maintaining his child with K200 monthly.
Court warns randy hubby
By PASSY HAACHIZO
A LOCAL court magistrate has warned a 26-year-old married man of Lusaka against having multiple girlfriends as that will lead to his downfall and that he will live to regret for the rest of his life.
Kanyama local court magistrate Daniel Phiri, sitting with Serah Nyendwa and Ackim Phiri, said it was shameful for Maxwell Nyoni, 26, a Seventh Day Adventist of Kanyama Township, to start piling girlfriends and yet he was married.
Magistrate Phiri strongly warned Nyoni to be careful with women if he did not want to fall in life.
This was a case in which Nyoni’s wife, Brenda Machilina, 24, of Makeni Villa, also an Adventist, sued him for divorce, citing his promiscuous behaviour.
Facts before the court were that the two got married in 2012 after Nyoni paid K1,500 of the K7,000 charged as bridal price and had a child together.
Marital problems started shortly after marriage when Machilina got pregnant as Nyoni started sleeping out.
“One day, he locked the door so that I should not enter the house but luckily enough the landlord gave me extra keys. He later told me to stop washing for him and perform any work that a woman is supposed to do at home,” Machilina said.
Machilina said she had reached a point of taking her husband to the Police Victim Support Unit (VSU) from within the township after the church failed to reconcile the couple.
Nyoni in defence attributed his actions to his wife’s mistreatment of his first-born child he had with another woman who was present in court, adding that Machilina forced him to stop supporting the child in question.
The court granted the couple divorce, with magistrate Phiri ordering Nyoni to pay Machilina K10,000 starting with K1,000 and then K300 monthly.
“Share your property but ensure that you also pay K200 for child maintenance,” magistrate Phiri said.
Sexually starved husband seeks redress
By PASSY HAACHIZO –
A TWENTY-NINE-YEAR-OLD man of Jack Township in Lusaka has told the Kanyama
local court that his wife has been denying him sex for eight months and suspects that she has been sleeping with his former business partner.
Fred Njovu, 29, told the court that his wife, Clara Sakala, 26, a Jehovah’s Witness of Garden House Township, started giving unaccountable excuses whenever he requested to have sex with her.
Njovu further said Sakala was fond of coming home late and that he had even started cooking for her instead of the other way round.
Njovu said he suspected that his wife wanted to leave him as he was financially unstable owing to his poorly-performing business and assumed that she was having an affair with his business associate.
“The man with a Canter truck whom I was doing business with started seeing her secretly. One day when I found him at my place with her, he pretended as if he wanted to collect a debt from her,” Njovu said.
Njovu said he would not want to lose his wife as he had already lost his property after the landlord confiscated some of his belongings for failing to pay for rentals.
This was in a case in which Sakala sued Njovu for divorce for not controlling his family members from destabilising the matrimonial home.
Facts before the court were that the two got married on November 19, 2011 after Njovu paid K2,000 out of K6,000 dowry and they had one child together.
Sakala insisted that she wanted divorce as she was tired of her in-laws’ interference in her marriage just because they had given the couple a house to live in at some point.
“His sister insulted me that I was wasting electricity. Even her parents were in support but he (Njovu) seemed to support them just because they had given us a house to live in,” Sakala said.
Sakala said she had at some point ventured into a business of selling goats at Kasumbalesa border but her husband did not seem to be in support.
In passing judgment, magistrates Daniel Phiri, Ackim Phiri and Serah Nyendwa granted the couple divorce upon observing that there was no sex and Sakala was not interested to continue being Njovu’s wife.
The court, however, did not compensate Sakala as it believed she was the cause of the marital problems but ordered Njovu to be maintaining the child with K400 every month.
Dirty pants hinder reconciliation
By SARAH MWANZA –
A TEACHER of Lusaka’s Garden House Township stirred laughter in a fully-packed Matero local court when he said his wife refuses to wash his pants, saying they are always soiled.
Edrister Katongo, 26, further disclosed that his wife had also accused him of being impotent because of his short manhood.
This was a case in which Susan Katongo, 21, sued Edrister for marriage reconciliation after the two failed to resolve their marital disputes.
The court heard that the two got married in 2012 and had two children together, while problems in their marriage started shortly after the two tied the knot.
Edrister told the court that although the two had children, his wife had been accusing him of being impotent.
“My wife tells me that I have a short manhood, hence I am incapable of having children. I now wonder who the father of the two children is,” Edrister said.
He said from the time the two got married, his wife had totally refused to wash his pants as she was disgusted by the thought of it.
“She tells me that whenever she attempts to wash my underwear she feels like vomiting because she always finds dirt on them,” he said.
Edrister said his wife had no respect for him and that she used to insult him at will in front of other people.
“Despite everything that my wife has done to me, I still love her and I am willing to start our lives afresh,” he said.
In her statement, Susan told the court that her husband never used to support the family as he spent all his money on beer and prostitutes.
Susan further said her husband was so violent that he used to beat her until she became unconscious whenever he was drunk.
“The only significant thing that my husband does best is to beat me up and starve the whole family,” she said.
Susan said further that she told her husband that he was impotent because he refused to support their two children.
“I am tired of staying with this man. In fact I don’t want reconciliation, just grant us divorce so that we can both live our separate lives,” she said.
Magistrate Pauline Newa, sitting with Lewis Mumba, failed to reconcile the two as Susan opted for divorce.
Kitchen parties wreck havoc
By MUNAMBEZA MUWANEI –
THE Kabushi local court has heard how a Ndola housewife changed after she started attending kitchen parties.
Sidney Musonda of Lubuto Township told the Kabushi local court that his wife, Ethel Suze, changed and turned against him when she started going for Kitchen parties.
Musonda said his wife even started drinking beer and started visiting some traditional healers.
But Suze said her husband caused a lot of misunderstandings in the marriage and wanted the court to dissolve the marriage.
She said when they got married in 2005, everything was well but the problems started in 2008 when she fell pregnant.
Suze said the husband did not want a second child because he was still too young to have another child.
In the process, she started work and used to earn more money than him and they opened an account where they used to save the money.
She said the money accumulated to K35,000 and to her surprise when she went to check she did not find any money in the account.
The court granted divorce to the couple and Musonda was asked to compensate Suze K5,000 to be paid in monthly installments with the first payment of K600 and thereafter K250 monthly.
Lusaka man elopes with married woman
By PASSY HAACHIZO –
A TWENTY-SEVEN-YEAR-OLD Lusaka man has told the Kanyama local court that he wants to marry another man’s wife as he cannot stand seeing her being deserted, together with the children, by her husband.
The woman in question, Loveness Mubita, 30, of Lusaka’s John Laing Township, denounced her husband in court by declaring her love for the 27-year-old man whom she eloped with.
This was a case in which Obby Chisala, 39, of Lusaka’s Garden House Township sued 27-year-old Charles Lameki for adultery.
Lameki, a Trade Kings employee of John Laing Township, said he always felt pity for women who were abandoned by their husbands and thus decided to elope with Mubita after Chisala ran away from the matrimonial home.
“I am one person who does not feel good to find people suffering. From here I want to ask my relatives, the woman’s relatives and Chisala’s relatives so that I can just pay whatever amount and get her for good,” Lameki said.
Chisala said he earlier this year quarrelled with Mubita resulting in her running away from home and only came back after word was sent to her relatives that she had run away from marriage.
Chisala said members of the community even tipped him that his wife was now going out with Lameki, as they frequented a certain car park where he found them one day.
“One day I even found him sleeping on the same bed with my wife, that’s how I left them to finish whatever they were doing,” he said.
In passing judgment, magistrates Daniel Phiri, Ackim Phiri and Serah Nyendwa charged Lameki for adultery.
“Chisala, how did you run away from your family yet you still call yourself a man? If you had not done so (run away) he (Lameki) would have paid K15,000 but now it will only be K3,000 in instalments of K500 so that others can learn a lesson,” Phiri said.
Defamation case in new twist
By PASSY HAACHIZO –
A KANYAMA woman who had dragged her friend to court for insulting her caused the latter to disclose that the complainant had been cheating on her husband with another man for six years.
Agatha Mulenga told the court that although the complainant, Agnes Kayombwe, took her to court for defamation, she was holding her secrets on how the aggrieved party had allegedly been sleeping with another man identified as Fred Mpundu for six years.
This is a case in which Kayombwe, a housewife, dragged Mulenga to the Kanyama local court for compensation over insults she hurled at her on September 9 this year.
Mulenga stirred murmurs in court when she revealed that Kayombwe was a bad woman who had allegedly been cheating on her husband with Mpundu for six years. Kayombwe’s visibly annoyed husband was also in court at the time.
Mulenga claimed that the two had in the past met at Mpundu’s home before she got married, yet Kayombwe was already in marriage.
“One day we bumped into each other at Mpundu’s home. She (Kayombwe) left her husband home under the pretext that she went to get something from the man around 05:00 hours, that’s how we bumped into each other,” Mulenga said.
Mulenga said the recent fight the two had was as a result of Kayombwe laughing at her when she was shifting using a wheel barrow.
Kayombwe said she was only a housewife who lived in harmony and was surprised that Mulenga insulted her when she was trying to buy a chitenge from a trader who passed by the salon where she was.
“She used unpalatable insults on me and told me I was very stupid before she held my waist and that’s how I slipped off this shirt,” Kayombwe said as she presented the T-shirt to the court clerk.
After the fight, Kayombwe and Mulenga reported each other to the police, where they were summoned and both were detained but were released after being fined.
Magistrates Ackim Phiri, Daniel Phiri and Sarah Nyendwa adjourned the case to a later date for Mpundu to appear in court following the adultery allegations against him.
