The Lilongwe First Magistrate’s Court (FGM) has fined a man K235, 000 for cheating his wife on divorce grounds.
The court heard that the woman identified as Elina of Nawaa village, T/A Lukwa in Kasungu Nkhoma went to seek employment to the man identified as Emmanuel Nkhoma of Nkhacha village, T/A Nkhumba in Mulanje.
The man after discussions with the woman agreed to employ her to be working as a shop keeper in his shop located at Kanengo.
“Before I even started working, I had already informed him that I was still in school and I had just sat for my Malawi School Certificate of Education examinations and I had all the intentions to continue with my education.
“After working for some time, the man asked me to marry him to which I agreed. It was then arranged that we hold a traditional wedding in order to officialise things to which we did. At this point, he had told me to stop going to school promising that he would be taking care of me.
“However, after four months, he asked me to go back to my home village in Kasungu as he said he had some other court issues somewhere he needed to take care of first,” said Elina Nkhoma.
The court further head that after spending some time in the village, the woman went back to her husband in Lilongwe but the man sent her back saying he had not yet finished doing what he was doing.
Back at her village, the woman tried to get in touch with her husband but her number was blacklisted, and when she decided to go back to him in Lilongwe, he told her he was not going to help her any more as he was not a money making machine.
At this point, the woman had learnt that the man had left her with the intention of going back to his ex wife.
During the proceedings, the court heard that the family of the woman had charged the man K50, 000 of which he had paid K30, 000 at the time of the disagreements. Also, that the woman’s family had tried to settle the issue with the man’s family but to no avail.
During cross examination, the man tried to convince the court that there was no any formal agreement between the two that their relationship was a marriage. mana
