MILES Sampa has pleaded with the High Court to allow him pay K1,500 for child maintainance instead of the K7,000 it ordered back in April.
The Lusaka City Mayor wants Lusaka High Court to vary the maintenance order dated April 23, 2019 in which he was compelled to be paying K7,000 per month to his ex-wife Mwika Mwenechanya as child maintenance.
Sampa has suggested that the child’s monthly maintenance should be reduced to K1,500 to enable him to maintain his other four children and himself equally.
According to his application for variation of the K7,000, Sampa contended that he is struggling to provide the necessities of life for his other four children and also his own up keep due to monthly liabilities and expenses.
Mwenechanya had asked the court to compell the Lusaka City Council to make payments to her out of Sampa’s earnings in accordance with the Affiliation and Maintenance of Children Act.
The Court had ordered the Lusaka Mayor to be maintaing his daughter at a monthly fee amounting to K7,000 before the sixth day of every month and that he should register her on the council medical scheme which he was entitled to by virtue of him being a Mayor.
The former deputy minister of commerce trade and industry had neglected to comply with the court order prompting his ex-wife Mwenechanya an Economist at Bank of Zambia to ask the court to cite him for contempt of court.
On July 26 the Lusaka High Court directed the Lusaka City Council (LCC) as Miles Sampa’s employers to be making monthly payments of K7, 000 from his earnings for maintainance of his child.
Sampa in his affidavit in support of an application to vary the maintenance order, said that he has complied with all court orders given by the court and moved the child of the family to Baobab School of Lusaka and paid all outstanding bills to the American International School amounting to K87,000/US6,613 as confirmed by the school.
He stated that he had also registred the child of the family on the Lusaka City Council medical scheme and provided a driver to be taking her to and from school everyday and that he buys her clothes every three months in a year.
Sampa said that his salary income is K20,000 and as a mayor of Lusaka, his personal monthly expenses on food and clothing only was K8,000 and he has four other children who depend on his monthly income of K20,000.
He stated that he intends to raise all the five children equally and fairly without appearing to be favoring anyone.
Sampa added that he has a mortgage with Stanbic Bank amounting to K882, 036.29 together with an accrued interest calculated at 24.75 percent per annum, adding that the bank has since sent him a final demand notice on the loan.
The mayor indicated that the court found as a matter of fact in its April 23, 2019 ruling that Mwenechanya is an economist at Bank of Zambia and gets a monthly salary of over K50, 000 without bonuses and she only has one child of the family to maintain.
