Sun, 15 Jan 2017 10:09:51 +0000
By FRANK NYAMBE
A PASTOR has refused to forgive his wife who has taken to the bottle and pleaded with the Lusaka Local Court to grant him divorce.
This is in a case in which Masautso Mwale, 40, a Pastor and a Security officer of Chaisa compound sued his wife, Naomi Mbewe, 34, of John Laing compound for divorce.
Pastor Mwale, however, said he could forgive his wife but he would not forget the events in his marriage
The two got married in 1998 and have five children.
Mwale told Senior Court Magistrate Abbyshine Michelo sitting with Magistrates Lewis Mumba and Esther Mulomba at Kanyama Local Court that he wanted divorce because Mbewe was unfaithful.
He explained that on September 2, 2016, Mbewe told him that she was going to a party with her mother in Kanyama compound as he was in the night shift but in the morning her phone was off.
Mwale said that a Good Samaritan brought a child home that was found in a tavern alone and that when he went to look for his wife, he found Mbewe in a drunken stupor in mud and soaked in urine.
Mwale further said that he leant that Mbewe was with a man who got her phone.
“At one time she did not pay house rentals for two months and she wrongly sent a love message to my workmate. I am embarrassed as a Pastor,’’ said Mwale.
In defence, Mbewe said that in 2016 Mwale told her that women at work propose love to him and that he even gave her phone number to Clara and Mildred who started greeting her even informing her that Mwale would not come home.
Mbewe admitted going to the party and getting drunk but denied being found in a bar.
Mbewe further told the court that Mwale slept in the sitting room for a week and later went to stay with his sister, adding that she did know where he had been for the past four months since they separated.
She said, however, her husband only came home around 04.oo hours and later left without telling where he was going.
Mbewe further said that Mwale told her that he wanted to marry a rich woman so that he could build a house.
Asked by the Court if he could forgive Mbewe, Mwale said that was possible but he could not forget what he had gone through, praying that divorce was the only way forward.
Magistrate Michelo said that a Pastor should lead by example not hypocrisy because what God has put together no man should put asunder.
He said that if Pastors were encouraged to divorce, it would send extremely bad signals to ordinary church members.
He, however, granted the couple divorce without compensation but Mwale was ordered to be paying child maintenance fee of K400 per month. Property acquired together would be shared equally.
