‘Drunkard madam’ shown door
By VIOLET MENGOA MAN of Lusaka’s Kamwala township asked the court to grant him divorce from his wife, alleging that she is cruel and an alcoholic.
Jason Chalwe, 32, told senior presiding magistrate Regina Mumba, sitting with Joseph Nyimba, that his wife Mable Makafu of Kitwe is an alcoholic who is violent and causes damage to property.
Chalwe told the court that Makafu is in the habit of breaking windows panes, doors and household property and that this has proved costly to him.
He said Makafu showers insults on him whenever she is drunk and is sometimes violent towards him and other people.
“My wife leaves home around 06:00 hours in the morning for her daily drink up and comes back home after 20:00 hours. She takes any type of alcohol made available to her, especially Tujilijili, (a potent spirit packed in sachets) and opaque beer.
Chalwe told the court that whenever the couple has an argument, Makafu tears his clothes and beats him up.
Chalwe told the court that before they moved to Lusaka from Kitwe, he was a regular visitor to the Mine Hospital where he used to be treated for injuries caused by his wife.
“Because of the life style my wife adopted, I stopped giving her money to manage the home,” he said.
He told the court that he found it hard to live with his wife and had requested that she goes to her parents for counseling, which he said yielded no positive results.
Makafu in her statement said when she and her husband used to live in Kitwe, they were in love and did not have problems.
She told the court that problems started when they moved to Lusaka where Chalwe found a job that paid him well.
“My husband stayed jobless for sometime and during that time, we did not have any problems. We lived with my parents because his parents disowned him as he did not have money to give them,” Makafu said.
Makafu told the court that her husband transformed into a ‘devil reincarnate’ because of the money he started handling.
“If he came home early, it would be around 01:00 hours but his usual time of arrival was around 05:00 hours,” she said.
She said in her effort to save her marriage, she complained to her mother-in-law but that this did not help because she, too, encouraged her son to do as he pleased.
“The problems in my marriage became worse after I found my mother-in-law in my bedroom, a taboo according to our tradition. I do not know what she put in the house. That night, my husband left our matrimonial home and refused to come back,” she said.
Makafu, a mother of two, told the court that it has been difficult for her to see her husband and that he has not been supporting his family.
She said when he finally came home, he packed his belongings and left.
Makafu said she still loves her husband.
The court, however, granted divorce.
Makafu was not compensated based on her unreasonableness, beer drinking and lack of love.
The court ordered that Makafu maintains the children from the rent she gets.
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