A Ndola husband shocked Kabushi Local Court after narrating how he opted to have sex with a maid when his wife, denied him his conjugal rights. Shadreck Kalela, 35, of Twapia Township, dragged his wife Jane Chembe, 30, to court for divorce. Kalela told senior presiding magistrate Agness Mulenga that the couple got married in 2000 and lived in peace but problems started in 2006 when he got a job as a security officer, which made him knock off late.

He said his wife took advantage of the situation and started spending most of her time at her parents’ home, despite him at one time beating her up for that. “Even after I beat her up, I still did not find her home. She started denying me conjugal rights. She employed a young girl as a maid when she started working at a hospital.

I became familiar with the girl and one day I made a mistake and slept with her,” he said. Kalela further told the court that he found his wife with another man, which infuriated him and beat her up. He said the couple engaged church elders and family to help resolve their differences in marriage but all proved futile.

“Since 2011 we have not lived in peace. She has no respect for me and she would tell her friends that when I knock off from work, I wait for nshima,” he said. Kalela said one day his wife served him with poisonous food which made him sick. “I did not leave home because of her miscarriage, but because she called me a Satanist,” he said.

In defence, Chembe said Kalela did not show her his payslip whenever he got paid and that he stopped giving her money. “On February 9, 2020, we differed after I asked him for K10. Later at night he shouted at me and threw me out of the bed and beat me up,” she said. Chembe said her husband packed his clothes and left home after giving one of his two children K10. She said her husband always behaved differently whenever he had money. Chembe said the girl she employed was her relative. She denied involving her friends to mock her husband. She, however, said she had a miscarriage because her husband beat her up.

Senior presiding magistrate Agness Mulenga granted divorce without compensation but ordered plaintiff to support the two children by giving them K500 per month effective April 10, 2020. The courts findings were that Kalela had lost love for his wife Chembe and that she did not respect her husband.

The court also noted that the marriage could not continue because Chembe always neglected her house chores by spending most of the time at her parents’ home and that her husband Kalela slept with another woman. Chembe was also caught having a relationship with another man and that Kalela did not provide for his wife. The court also granted divorce on grounds that Chembe’s friends mocked her husband because of the way she portrayed him to them.