Court awaits witchdoctor’s findings to rule on divorce case

ZAMBIA – THE LUSAKA Boma Local Court is waiting to hear the findings of a witchdoctor before it can deliver a ruling in a divorce case it is presiding on.

This is after a couple of Lusaka sent shivers down the spines of members of public as they openly traded hair-raising and frightening accusations boardering on black magic and wizardry rituals before an open court last Thursday.

Stephen Silungwe aged 51 of Kabangwe was first to take the stand and pleaded that his six-year marriage to Alice Sakala aged 33 be dissolved without delay because according to him, she was a demon-possessed maniac who always waited for the dark hours of the night to squeeze the life out of him.

The quinquagenarian told the court that many times he had woken up in the middle of night to find the mother of his three in a trance and trying to prematurely reunite him with his ancestors in the land of the dead.

But Alice laughed off the accusation saying there was no way she would agree to be divorced from a man she said had “taken away my womb”.

Alice said the only reasons her husband wanted to divorce her was because she had refused to apply a charm-filled concoction he had ordered her to be applying on her private parts in order to make his business more profitable.

“My husband told me that the problem he has with me is that I don’t want to work with him like his previous wife used to. He said that I should also stop going for prayers because it bad for his business that is why we are having financial issues in out home,” Alice narrated.

Further Alice narrated that in attempt to solve the marital problems, she and her husband visited a witchdoctor who told them he would have an answer for them by last Saturday.

As frightened members of the public started to sneak out of court one-by-one, Senior Local Court Magistrate Prudence Bwalya adjourned the matter to a later date saying she wanted to know what the findings of the witchdoctor would be before she could deliver her judgement.

She noted that if Silungwe really wanted to divorce Alice, he would not have accepted to look for answers from the Jujuman.