My wife of 22yrs denies me s3x —Husband

•He stopped giving me, our children food allowance after he married another woman —Wife

A 45-YEAR-old woman is to return to her cassava-growing town of Mpika empty-handed after the Lusaka Boma Local Court, Zambia, ruled that her 22-year stay with a man she believed was her husband was a mere sleepover.

According to Zambia Observer, this came to light during a court hearing in which Kazhima Mafula, aged 46, of Kabanana township in Lusaka, had sued Mercy Machimba for divorce.

Kazhima had run to the court to complain that his wife of 22 years had been denying him sex and thus prayed for divorce.

Kazhima also stated that Mercy was also disrespectful and did not perform her wifely duties of washing for him.

However, in explaining Kazhima’s reason for dragging her to court for divorce, Mercy stated that he did so because she reported him to the Police after he failed to pay for the household goods which had mysteriously vanished from their matrimonial home while she was on a visit to her family in Mpika.

Mercy told the court that she was forced to report her husband to the police because he was no longer supporting the family financially since he got married to a woman in Lundazi, where he always went and would forget her and their two children.

She said despite complaining to his family about his behaviour, her concerns went unattended to.

The magistrate, Bertha Zulu, ruled Mafula’s attempts to secure his conjugal rights offside as he had not paid her dowry.

The court ruled that the couple’s union which resulted in the birth of two children aged 20 and 14, respectively, could not be classified as marriage because Mafula did not pay her bride price.

The magistrate, Zulu, dismissed the case, saying the couple was merely cohabiting and therefore could go their separate ways without the court being involved.