A THIEVING eastern wife of Lusaka’s Chazanga ramshackle area has been taken to court by her fuming husband, for stealing over K35,000 from his piggy bank and engulfing it in sand to fool him that the money is still available.
33-year-old Andsen Daka sued his wife, Precious Tembo, 36, for being a bemba when it comes to taking other people’s things without the intention of returning, complaining that she has been a thief since the the reception of their marriage which happened 10years ago.
Daka said Tembo is blessed with a long hand not for giving but for taking, alleging that she quietly helped herself to the K14,500 he had hidden in a small bag in their bedroom to boost his business, the cash only she knew about.
According to him, he then switched to a holier strategy by hiding his savings inside a Bible he believed that no one would dare to temper with, but after managing to put aside K12,500 in one week, the money vanished, leaving him wondering if something mysterious was swallowing cash in the house, especially since Tembo always denied knowing anything whenever he asked.
This came to light in a divorce case brought before the Matero Local Court, where Daka sought divorce from Tembo, declaring that he had grown tired of her long hands.
“One day, I started keeping my savings in a ‘Josaka,’ putting in K100 at a time but when I wanted to use the money, I discovered it had been tempered with, and I found only a K27 out of the K10,000 I had saved. I then changed my business and became a bus driver, and began keeping my earnings in a bag, only to find most of it missing. I was only left with a K8,500. On top of that, another K1,000 disappeared from my wallet,” Daka revealed.
What shocked Daka the most, he said, was when he went back to keeping money in a piggy bank, only for his wife the next day to take it to a man she was owing in town to cash it, returning it with K800 coins, filled with nothing but soil.
“My wife credited money from a guy in town and later defaulted in paying, so the guy called me to return the money, which I did. After that, he confessed that my wife had been frequenting his shop with piggy banks so he can help her open, and that’s when I realised she had been the one secretly eating away at my savings and diminishing my success,” he said.
He added that while Tembo has other good qualities, he cannot tolerate her thieving ways, saying she now spends money meant for their children’s school fees.
But Tembo denied the allegations leveled against her, saying she was equally surprised that the money kept disappearing every time they went to sleep and woke up.
Standing as a witness, Tembo’s mother said the marriage of the couple could not work, claiming that the magic of disappearing money was too much to handle.
However, Tembo’s mother’s testimony drew sharp questions from Magistrate Harriet Mulenga, who challenged her claim about ‘magic’ in the couple’s house, suggesting she might know more than the two.
“How do you know it’s magic? Your daughter taking money and putting sand in it, is that magic? You seem to know more than the couple, given your confidence. You will need to tell us if you have been benefiting from what your daughter has been stealing,” magistrate Mulenga stated.
“You can’t be stealing money from your husband, a man providing you and the children. You are making your children suffer for no reason. Stop being selfish and be content with what you have,” she advised Tembo.
Meanwhile, the matter was adjourned to November 24, 2025, for submission and judgement, pending site visit after disputes over the couple’s properties intensified.
By Sharon Zulu
Kalemba November 18, 2025
