WHEN a woman of Lilanda thought she was punishing her husband by denying him sex, he revenged by not buying food and withdrawing from paying rentals for three years. Isaac Miti, 41, told Magistrate Pauline Newa that it was senseless for him to buy food and pay rentals for his wife, Aliness Mwanza, 32, because she did not want to have sex with him.

He told the court in his evidence in a case in which he has been sued for divorce. “Why should I buy food for someone who said has lost interest in me? She used to sleep with her clothes on and always slept on the sitting room whenever I asked for sex,” Miti said.

He told the court that Mwanza went for family planning without his consent on grounds that she can only conceive in 2022. Miti said he went for another woman because he could not handle sexual starvation for a long time.

“I still love my wife and I am willing to take her back if only she can change her behaviour. I don’t want us to divorce. All I am asking from her is to change,” he said. And Mwanza earlier told the court that problems in her marriage started in 2017 when Miti stopped buying food at home. She said her husband neglected his family when he went to work in LusakaWest. “He always gave me excuses whenever I called him to ask for support. He always told me he was broke.

He could only send me K200 and expected me to pay rentals and buy food,” Mwanza said. She said she only discovered later that her husband married another woman following a tip-off from a neighbour. Mwanza told the court that she no longer loves her husband her decision to divorce him. The court granted a free divorce on grounds that both parties contributed to the breakdown of the marriage. Miti was ordered to give Mwanza K 200 for child maintenance, effective July 30