AFTER nine years of holding on to a dream of marriage, a 25-year-old woman of Zecco Township in Livingstone has taken her suitor to court for wasting her time after he broke the promise of marrying her. Mutinta Malaki demanded K15,000 from Joseph Kamana, 26, of Makunka village in Chief Sekute’s area for wasting her time. The two started courting in 2011 and have one child together. She told senior local court magistrate Esau Daka that Kamana promised to marry her in 2012 after they had a child. “In 2014, I lost my mother.

I relocated to Lusaka in 2016 but he asked me to move in with his mother in the village. He then decided to go to college and insisted I wait for him to complete college so that we can get married,” she told the court. However, in August last year Kamana changed his mind about marrying Malaki, saying he was no longer interested in marrying her. “When I was staying with his mother, I used to work in their maize fields and we would sell the harvested maize so that we could send money for his tuition.

I did that because I knew once he completed, we would get married just like he had promised me,” Malaki said. She said a month before his graduation he informed her that the marriage was off. “I want him to compensate me with K15,000,” Malaki said. And Kamana told the court that he promised to marry Malaki after college.

“Yes, I had promised to marry her, but while at college I realised that she is not my class. I am no longer interested in marrying her and I am ready to at least pay K7,000, not the K15,000 that she is demanding,” Kamana said. He told the court that he was able to pay the K7,000 in monthly instalments of K100. Passing judgment, the court upheld the claim and ordered Kamana to pay Malaki K10,000 as compensation in monthly instalments of K500.