A 27-year-old Zambian man of Lundazi district has been sentenced to five years imprisonment with hard labour for murdering a man he caught in the act, having sex with his wife in the bush.

Mustard Ngulube appeared before High Court judge Timothy Katanekwa, who is sitting as Chipata High Court Judge, for one count of murder which was later reduced to manslaughter.

Particulars of the offence were that Ngulube on March 31, 2020, in Lundazi unlawfully caused the death of Chaipa Chandiko.

It is alleged that Ngulube, who readily admitted the charge, went into the bush to look for fibre and had an axe in his possession, but he saw people making love in the bush.

When he got closer, he realized that Chandiko was on top of his wife having sex and that upon noticing his presence, the wife, identified as Jessy Kumwenda, ran away.

Ngulube later hacked Chandiko with an axe on the head and was taken to Lundazi District Hospital where he died upon arrival.

A Postmortem report conducted at Lundazi District Hospital indicates that Chandiko died of cerebral hemorrhage.

In mitigation, Ngulube, who was represented by Legal Aid Board Lawyer Sally Bwalya, said that he is remorseful for causing the death of his fellow community member.

Ngulube said that he has received extensive counseling from faith based organisations and has vowed to control his anger.

But when passing judgement, judge Katanekwa said the court considered what Ngulube’s lawyer said in mitigation but in order to control his anger and not to take the law into his own hands, he was sentencing him to 5 years imprisonment with hard labour effective the date of arrest.