A WOMAN of Kitwe will spend the next five months of her life dismantling a K1,000 payment to a woman of the same area for poking her nose in another person’s marital life. Hope Banda was found guilty of defaming Susan Lusambo by insinuating that she got divorced due to her inability to take care of her marriage.

Lusambo won her suit of defamation of character against Banda before the Buchi Local Court. Lusambo told the court that problems between her and Banda started after she took the man of the same area to police for encroaching on her land. Lusambo, who was a witness to the man that Banda took to the police testified that after they went out of the police station, Banda allegedly defamed her by telling her that she was a stupid woman who had failed to keep her marriage. She told the court that Banda also called her a stupid woman and insinuated that her stupidity caused her husband to leave her.

Lusambo said she found Banda’s words to be disrespectful because she is older than her. She also told the court that she had no idea of where Banda heard that she was divorced because she was the one that left her husband after he mistreated her. “Banda also told me that she will train me on how to take care of a marriage so that I can be taught on how to keep my marriage,” she said. Lusambo asked the court to discipline Banda for defaming her character in order to prevent her from committing a similar offence. Banda refuted the allegations and told the court that she had no idea that Lusambo was actually a divorcee.

She said she does not know Lusambo at a personal level and that she has only accused her because she was upset with the fact that she is fighting for the land that belongs to her. Buchi senior local court magistrate Patricia Mulwimba upheld the claim and ordered Banda to compensate Lusambo with K,000 by K 200 monthly instalments