VICTORIA KASANGA writes
@SunZambian
A farm manager in Ndola has divorced his wife for beating him each time they differed especially on suspicion of a love affair with another woman.
The woman had also hauled all household goods including his clothes and abandoned the home after suspecting her husband of being in a love affair with another woman.
This prompted her husband, who is a farm manager, to sue for divorce which the local court granted and ordered her to return the property to him.
Grace Shibuchinga, 52, also got her husband`s credit card, insisting she had the right to have it and did not want any other woman to misuse his money.
This is a case in which Howard Hachoonga 61, sued Ms Shibuchinga for divorce due to escalating marital disputes.
He told the court that they got married in 2015 and had no children together while K200 dowry was paid.
Mr Hachoonga said when they got married, he had three children from his first wife while Ms Shibuchinga had eight children.
He said they lived well when they got married but problems started when he was transferred from Lufwanyama district to Ndola.
Mr Hachoonga said he suggested that the two of them should get a farm in Lufwanyama so that they could engage in agriculture as he had planned to stop work.
“When my wife was moving to the farm, she got almost all the properties in the house in Ndola and left me with just a few. When I asked her why she did that, she only said she needed to use them all,” he said.
The case was before Kabushi Local Court senior presiding magistrate Agnes Mulenga sitting with Mildred Namwizye and Evelyn Nalwizya.
He said when she stayed for a few months at the farm, she started getting sick and complained that she could not live there alone.
At this point, she went to live in one of the houses her children bought for her in Chingola.
“When she came to Ndola, she started suspecting me of having an affair and would beat me each time we had a misunderstanding,” he said.
He said his wife got his credit card and that whenever he wanted to get money she was supposed to be around to control his spending.
Mr Hachoonga said one day when he was at work, his wife came with a truck and packed all the properties including the ones for the company.
He said she also got all his clothes and went to live in Chingola.
He said because of what she did, he would not to get his salary until all the company properties were returned.
“I am tired of being mistreated like I am not human. I want divorce so that I can live in peace and she should return the properties she got from me,” he said.
In her statement, Ms Shibuchinga said when she went to live in Chingola, she heard rumours that her husband was having an affair with his 25-year-old workmate by the name of Florence.
She said she then decided to get back to Ndola and prove for herself.
“When I came back, I found ladies` powder and lipstick which I did not live in the house. When I asked him who it belonged to, he admitted that he brought a woman in the house,” she said.
She said because of that she beat him and he went to report herself to Victim Support Unit.
Ms Shibuchinga said one day her husband told her that he was going into town but when she called him, she heard women laughing in the background.
She pursued him and got his credit card.
“Since I am his wife, I have the right over his money and not any other women and I am not going to allow other women to misuse his money,” she said.
She said she got all the properties because she was angered and that there was no way she would allow another woman to use the properties.
Ms Shibuchinga said if the husband wanted to being another woman, he had to start buying everything afresh.
In passing judgment, the court dissolved the marriage as the two parties were not willing to live together.
The court ordered Ms Shibuchinga to return all the properties she got in the second instance and that she could keep the ones she got at first when she went to live at the farm.
