By NOMSA NKANA
THE scriputure in the book of proverbs which says ‘better to live on the roof of a house than with a quarrelsome wife’ came alive in the Kanyama local court when an irate Lusaka man, who sued for divorce said his wife is careless with her speech such that even their 19-year-old son knows how many rounds of sex they have in a night.
And his wife, who was not going to roll over and play dead while he accused her of being quarrelsome and talkative stunned the court when she said despite her husband having six women, she does not want to divorce him.
This was heard before Justices, Esther Sifulwe, Gastone Kalala, and Ng’andu Mukuka in a case where Beston Mandevu, 41, sued Ethel Mwiinga 26, both of Lusaka for divorce.
The court granted divorce and ordered Mandevu to pay Mwiinga KR7 000 as compensation.
Mandevu told the court that in 2009, Mwiinga suspected him of having a lover and that one night when he left home for a beer, she secretly followed him with the hope of catching him red handed.
He said as he sat outside with some folks enjoying his beer, he heard the voice of a lady calling out to him but because it was dark, he didn’t recognise who it was.
“I started chatting with her for quite some time only for my wife to come out of the shadows enraged, with a long knife ready to stab me,” he said.
Mandevu took his wife home but a fight ensued making it difficult for him to sleep in their house and he opted for the chicken run.
In 2010 he said, their marital problems escalated forcing, the couple to go on separation for a year but reconciled in 2011, however, they only moved in together in 2012.
He said after a while, they both fell sick and discovered that Mwiinga had a sexually transmitted infection (STI) and when he asked her where she contracted it from, she told him probably from a boyfriend she had during the time the two were on separation.
Mandevu told the floor that Mwiinga got treated but the infection re-occurred at the time she discovered she was pregnant.
He said it surprised him how she got re-infected when they had stopped having sex, making him suspect she was still intimate with the man she claimed was her former lover.
Mandevu said in February this year, he moved out of their bedroom because of Mwiinga’s alleged promiscuity and lack of respect for him.
He said he moved out because Mwiinga insults him and talks too much that their son even knows how many rounds of sex the two have in a night.
And in her statement, Mwiinga, who is eight months pregnant, shocked the court when she said Mandevu has six women in his life, some of whom are wives while others are concubines.
Amid sounds of iye, iye and hmms from the floor, Mwiinga said when they were on separation, Mandevu married two women who were pregnant at the same time.
Mwiinga said when that happened, Mandevu went back to her begging for reconciliation.
“I asked him what he was going to do with his two wives and he told me he was going to chase them which he did and took me back to his house,” she said.
Mwiinga said at the height of their re-union, she fell pregnant but to her surprise, he chased her away saying he wanted to marry another woman.
She said one day late in the night, she felt like easing herself and when she went to the toilet outside, she saw Mandevu holding a woman by the hand and leading her into one of the rented rooms.
And as if that was not enough she said, he impregnated another woman within their neighbourhood.
Mwiinga said they have had discussions six times with six different women who he has impregnated but despite all that, she said she still loves him and wants him back.