My wife beat me just because Papa told me she’s a witch, man tells court
AN OBSESSION for pentecostal papas and believing everything they say has earned an elderly man of Lusaka’s Makeni area severe beatings from his angry wife.
Speaking with swollen cheeks from inside the dock of the Lusaka Boma Local Court where his 53-year old wife, Ines Tembo had sued him for reconciliation, Mulenga Zimba pleaded with the court to prolong his life by dismissing her petition.
The 52-year old complained to the court that besides sexually starving him for 96 months, his wife was also a violent bully with a temper of a volcano.
Zimba testified that his wife had a dangerous left hand which she frequently used to subject him to slaps more painful than those delivered by the men and women from the Zambia Police Service-run Kamfinsa School of Public Order in Kitwe.
He even presented to court a souvenir of his marital beatings in form of a badly torn t-shirt he had been wearing during one of the many brutal beating sessions at the hands of his wife.
As if that was not enough to instill fear in him, Zimba revealed that a prophet from his church divined that his wife was a witch, who, using the powers of black magic had kept him in perpetual poverty and misfortune.
Zimba told the court that the same prophet also informed him that his wife had fed him charms which made him relinquish his powers as the man of the house.
“When she heard that she was divined to be a witch, she beat me three times that she even tore my new shirt apart. She has a very dangerous which beats me with. I am sure everyone knows how painful blows delivered by a left-handed people can be,” Zimba testified as the the public gallery reacted with homeric laughter.
But in her submissions, Ines admitted to beating her husband although she denied being a witch as suggested by his prophet.
Ines explained that she had resorted to beating Zimba because of his obsessions for Papas and believing whatever they told him.
She also accused Zimba of being a womaniser going out with different women whom he claimed were only his churchmates.
“He hasn’t touched me since 2015. I sat him down with our relatives and but he told them that he doesn’t want me anymore,” explained Ines.
Ines said she still loved her husband and wanted to remain married to him so that they could keep their four children together.
As the couple concluded their dramatic testimonies against each other, the case took an even more interesting turn when Senior Local Court Magistrate, Mpundu Mwape Fwambo asked the couple if Zimba had paid dowry at the time of their marriage in 1994.
When both Zimba and Ines confirmed that dowry was never paid, the court announced that their 29 years of staying together was nothing more than a long sleepover.
“You two just know each other. You have just been boyfriend and girlfriend for 29 years because no dowry was paid. You were just cohabiting. This is why you had no peace in your marriage because you were both not counseled by marriage councilors. So this marriage reconciliation has failed because there is no marriage to reconcile,” said Magistrate Fwambo.
By Buumba Mwitumwa
Kalemba