MUTINTA MULAYE writes
A TEACHER of 10 miles on Great North Road, Freda Banda has been granted custody of her 12 year old son by the Lusaka Boma Local Court.
This is in a matter in which Banda was sued by Mr Clarence Mulenga, 31, farmer of Kabwata Township for custody of the child.
Mulenga told Magistrate Contilda Kamono that he had a son with Banda when they were still in school.
He wanted his son to move and stay with him.
He said earlier the court had given custody to Ms Banda and ordered him to be paying K300 every month for child maintenance.
But in less than a month after the court ruling, Ms Banda took the child to his house. “Before a month elapsed she brought the child to me. I took the child to my mother in Livingstone where he stayed and was learning until last year when my mother passed on,” Mr Mulenga said.
Mr Mulenga also told the court that after his mother’s funeral, his son went to stay with his mother.
He explained that when he went to pick him Ms Banda was not willing to let the child move in with him.
Ms Banda denied the allegations and told the court that she and Mr Mulenga had already agreed that the boy should stay with her.
“He is saying that I took the boy to him even before a month elapsed, that is not true. He has never paid any maintenance and he never used to pick up any of my calls, “His mother is the one that called and told me that since her son doesn’t support the child, I should send him to stay with her in Livingstone,” she said. Banda told the court that it was Mulenga’s mother who was paying for his school when the boy was in Livingstone