CHARLES MUSONDA writes
@SunZambia
A schoolgirl says bitter disputes between her family and their old aged neighbour started after she turned down his love proposal.
The 13-year-old juvenile said this in cross examination on Monday in a case she has been jointly charged with her brother Brian Mwenya for allegedly assaulting 69-year-old Alick Zulu.
Zulu, a painter of Marapodi compound testified before Lusaka Magistrate Nsunge Chanda that in November last year the minor insulted him as he was going for work and that when he asked why she was insulting him, she ran into her parents’ house.
He said later in the day around 20:00 hours a mob descended on him at his home but that out of the group, he could only identify the juvenile and her brother Mwenya because he allegedly broke his arm with an iron bar.
He said that was the second attack he had suffered at the hands of the assailants, claiming the first assault, in which he sustained a broken leg, happened at his plot.
“I reported the first attack to Marapodi police post but they told me to buy summons against them. While I was waiting for the summons, they attacked me for the second time. I decided to report to Matero police station where I was given a medical report, which I took to Chingwere Clinic.
“After the doctor signed it I took it back to Matero police station and they advised me to take it to Marapodi police post, which is the nearest to my home,” Zulu said.
In cross examination, he insisted that it was Mwenya who hit him with the iron bar on the arm and that he was not mad to accuse a person who did not attack.
When it was the juvenile’s turn to cross examine him, she asked him if problems did not start after she rejected his love proposal but he challenged her why she did not report him to police if he made any advance on her.
The parties had a bitter exchange of words when the minor’s guardian was cross examining Zulu, prompting Magistrate Chanda to warn them that she would be forced to send them to prison if they continued misbehaving in court.
“If you can behave like this before me, I wonder how it is at home. If you continue misbehaving I will send you to prison because that is the place everyone fears. There is order in court because people fear to go to prison,” Ms. Chanda said after which she adjourned the case to April 15, 2019 for continued trial.
