A 35-yea-old deacon of Covenant Church has been ordered to compensate a 46 year old man with K 10,000 after he was caught red-handed committing adultery with the complainant’s wife. Philip Miti told the court that he found Alfred Ngoma sleeping with his wife, Zenaida Phiri, 33, at 04:00 hours when he went to visit his wife early this month.

Miti was testifying before the Matero local court in a case in which he sued Ngoma for compensation for adultery.
He told the court that Ngoma took advantage of his separation from his wife to go out with her in the name of offering spiritual help.
Miti told the court that Ngoma, at one point, called him around 01:00 hours and told him that his marriage was going through challenges and it needed spiritual intervention.

“When my wife and I went on separation in October, Ngoma started counselling us on how to build our marriage. He used to send me Bible verses to encourage me. Little did I know that he was going out with my wife,” he said. Miti told the court that Ngoma started beating him when he found him sleeping with his wife and he later ran away.

In his defence, Ngoma told the court that Miti only found him standing with his wife outside around 05:00 hours. He said he passed by Miti’s wife’s house to greet her and it was only minutes later that the complainant arrived. “I know Miti’s wife because she was a maid at a house behind Erasmus Lodge, where I used to work. There is nothing between me and her,” Ngoma said.

Miti’s wife, Zenaida, told the court that her husband found her with Ngoma outside the house around 05:00 hours. She said Miti then started calling out the neighbours while he was beating him. And Wisdom Miti, 14, told the court that his mother told his that Ngoma was coming home to have supper the night before.

Wisdom said Miti came at around 20:00 hours and gave him a K 200 after which he had supper with Zenaida. “When the deacon came, I left him with my mother and went to chat with my friends in the next house. The deacon has been coming home for some time now,” he said.

In passing judgement, the court proved the act of adultery on grounds that Ngoma had been visiting Zenaida’s house and therefore it is common knowledge that there was a relationship between the two. Ngoma was ordered to compensate Miti with K 10,000 with the first instalment being a K 1,000 followed by K 500 effective January 2019.