A THIRTY-THREE-YEAR OLD woman of Chazanga Township says her church in Kabanana Township married off her husband to another church member after she was accused of committing adultery. Namukale Pondamali said the church, Way to Heaven Church, forced her to confess that she had committed adultery, failure to which her husband, Gild Mwenda, 39, would be married to another woman from the same church.

Ms Pondamali said that the issue started in 2014 when Patrick Sakalala, the pastor of the church, told her that he had perceived in the spirit that she committed adultery and was supposed to confess and repent.

“I refused to confess because I did not commit adultery,” she said. She said that Pastor Sakalala later allegedly arranged a marriage for her husband with his granddaughter, Bertha Nyambe. “My husband told me that it was the will of God that he gets married to Bertha,” she said. Ms Pondamali said Mwenda then started calling the children he had with her as products of sin and that it was only the Devil’s plan that he got married to her. She said she stopped going to church out of frustration and sued her husband in the local court seeking divorce. “The issue of marrying other people’s wives is common in the same church,” she said.

Ms Pondamali said one of the elders in the church was even sued after he divorced his wife and married three different women. Mwenda confessed that what Pondamali said is the truth and apologised for his actions. He said he did not know why he left his wife and went on to get married to the pastor’s granddaughter.

“What my wife has said is the truth, my marriage with [Bertha] Nyambe did not last long because we had a lot of problems, so I decided to go back to Pondamali to ask for forgiveness but she refused and threw me out of her house,” Mwenda said. But Pastor Sakalala denied marrying off his granddaughter, Bertha, to Mr Mwenda. He said Mr Mwenda and Bertha got married at a private function that was not attended by any of his church members.

“It is true that Mr Mwenda and my granddaughter got married, but they did not have the blessings of the church. He claimed he expelled the couple from the church after he learnt that they had gotten married. He refuted allegations that he forced Pondamali to confess but that she did it on her own.