CEASAR MBEWE writes
@SunZambian
A BUS conductor of Lusaka’s Kanyama Compound has been ordered to settle the K7, 000 he was charged in 2014 as damage fees in monthly installments of K500.
Derrick Mutale, 28, was sued by his mother in law, Mary Kauseni, 43, of the same locality for refusing to settle damage fees.
Particulars of the case are that on unknown date in 2014 Mutale deflowered Kauseni’s daughter and he accepted the matter.
He was then charged K7,000 as damage fees which Mutale’s parents agreed to pay in installments but since then nothing had been paid.
Kauseni told Kanyama Local Court Magistrate Marble Lupata that Mutale assured her of the money as soon as he started working.
She explained that her daughter had to stop school and get married because she could not afford to take care of herself and the child.
“In 2014 when my daughter was deflowered by Mutale we sat and had a written agreement of how much was to be paid to us and they signed,
“But I’m shocked that since that time nothing has been paid despite him having stayed with my daughter,” Kauseni said.
Kauseni further told the court how disrespectful her son in law got sometimes whenever she asked him about the money.
In his defence, Mutale said he refused to pay the money because he constantly got phone calls from another man over his wife’s pregnancy who kept threatening him to leave her alone or he would die.
“The reason I refused to pay is that this wife of mine has been pregnant before from another man and she aborted, this information was given to me by her ex-lover who constantly threatens me to leave her alone and I informed my mother in law but she did not do anything about it ,” Mutale said.
The court ruled that Mutale should pay the money in monthly installments of K500 as agreed by the signed document between the two families.
