A LUSAKA man has told the Magistrates’ Court that his girlfriend engaged him in a scuffle when he refused to spend a night with her after a heavy drinking spree.
Jeremiah Mwamba said on Monday that he might have accidentally hurt his lover as he tried to get out of the motor vehicle to pick up his phone, which she threw outside after reading his wife’s text messages asking him to go home.
This is in a case Mwamba, 31, a customer relations officer, was found with a case to answer for allegedly assaulting Mulanga Mwamba, who was also his workmate.
After being put on his defence by Magistrate Nsunge Chanda, Mwamba said on May 26, 2018, he met Mulanga in the company of her aunt Pamela Mulenga and her friend on Ring Road in Chalala area.
He said Ms. Mulenga then drove to Chilenje where she bought beer for everyone and they started drinking on their way to Kalingalinga where she bought some meat and more beer before proceeding to Fairview Hotel and continued drinking.
Mwamba said later Mulanga got tired and went to rest in Ms. Mulenga’s Toyota Alphard and he followed suit.
“When I entered the motor vehicle I asked her to give me my phone but she refused, telling me that she had read messages from my wife asking me to go home. She insisted that she wanted to spend the night with me. We were both drunk and I tried to reason with her but she refused.
“We struggled for the phone and kept on pushing each other back on forth. She threw the phone outside and when I tried to go and pick up the phone, which was in pieces, she said I had hurt her,” Mwamba said.
He said Mulanga then warned him that he would pay for assaulting her because when they dated for 10 months, he had differences with his wife and his girlfriend was hoping he would leave his wife for her.
He said as he was putting the phone pieces together, Ms. Mulenga, his girlfriends’ aunt, went to the car park and accused him of assaulting her niece.
“Her aunt punched and pushed me to provoke me into a fight. I tried to explain but because she was equally drunk, she continued to provoke me. When she saw that I was not interested in a fight, they got in the vehicle and drove off,” he said.
After being shown Mulanga with a swollen eye in the photo, Mwamba insisted that he did not assault her. The court has since set next Thursday as judgment day.
