A 27 year old woman of Kamwala Compound, in Lusaka, surprised the court when she brought her biological sister before it for her alleged defamatory text messages.
Beatrice Maibisa sued her sister, Cecilia Maibisa, 25, a business woman of Chawama, in the Boma Local Court over the text messages allegedly sent to her husband which she said caused problems in her marriage.
In her statement, before presiding magistrate Gaston Kalala, Ms Beatrice accused her sister Cecilia of sending insulting messages to her husband, some of it to insinuate that her second born child was not fathered by him.
Beatrice told court that he husband forwarded her some messages he suspected were sent by her sister while she was at the market on February 10, 2019.
“When I got home, my husband told me we had to visit my sister to talk to her because he suspected the messages were coming from her” said Beatrice.
“My cousin, Nosiku, also informed me that Cecilia had told her that my husband was not the father of my child but my boyfriend,” she said.
She said that her husband overheard her speak to Nosiku over the phone and suggested that the three should go together to Cecilia’s house to talk to her.
She explained that Cecilia denied sending the messages to her husband when they confronted her and that they left without resolving the issue because a quarrel erupted.
And his submission, Beatrice’s husband, Paul Mwila, 35, confirmed to court that he had been received insulting text messages through an unknown number, from a person claiming to be Cecilia.
“She dined sending the messages when we confronted her but confessed to her cousin that she had told her our son is not my child but for my wife’s boyfriend,” Mr. Mwila said.
Nosiku Likuwa, a cousin to both parties, on the other hand, denied ever being informed anything about Beatrice’s child by Cecilia.
She also told court that nothing constructive was discussed regarding the alleged text messages when they confronted Cecilia because a quarrel erupted during the meeting.
“Our brother in law showed Cecilia the messages, but a quarrel erupted between Beatrice and Cecilia because they both wanted to speak at the same time. Beatrice’s husband got upset in the process and he left the house. I watched from the distance all that time,” Nosiku stated.
Nosiku said that her husband advised her to distance herself from her cousins to avoid being implicated in their differences.
But in her defense, Cecilia denied ever sending the alleged text messages to Mr. Mwila and claimed that he sister and her husband failed to forward them to her when she requested to see them.
She confirmed her Cecilia, her husband and her council also went to her house to try and discuss the text messages but that they could not because a quarrel erupted after her sister insulted her.
“She told me I am barren because my uterus is bend. I got upset and switched on the radio, and that made her leave,” said Cecilia.
“She repeated the insulted when her husband came to collect the child’s bottle that, he should never be found with people that are barren,” said Cecilia.
The court dismissed the deformation of character claim because there was no proof that Cecilia was the one sending the messages to Mr. Mwila’s mobile phone.
The court said that only Mr. Mwila, of all the witnesses, stated that the messages were emanating from Beatrice’s sister.
