By Dickson Jere

A driver and nurse were married but divorced after six years. They had one child. They lived together in one of the properties in Salama Park which belonged to the man. The plot had two houses – one on which was built during the subsistence of the marriage. The man also had three vehicles.

The two failed to resolve the sharing of the properties after divorce and the matter went to the High Court and later reached the Supreme Court. It was a highly contested case!

The man argued that he had built the house on the plot belonging to his late father and therefore the property was not his. He claimed the vehicles were not in his name.

A panel of three Supreme Court Judges heard the appeal and stated that sharing of family property after divorce is not based on the fifty-fifty formula but rather what one contributed to that property.

“Although indeed parties to a marriage are recognized as equal, equality and fairness implies that when their love life is over, the parties to a marriage should each walk out with a share of what they contributed,” the Judges said.

“A marriage is not, and, should never be regarded as the reason for equal sharing of matrimonial property,” the Supreme Court ruled.

The Judges said the contribution can be materially, financially or in kind whereby the spouse helps in supervising the work of the construction or indeed buys food at home to relieve the pressure on one who is building.

“Our view is that property settlement should be undertaken on the basis of fairness and conscience; not on an unjustified reference to the 50:50 dogma,” the Court said.

It also observed that nowadays days most women were breadwinners unlike in the past and therefore what they acquire during marriage should be protected too. In fact, in this case, the wife – nurse – earned more than the husband driver.

“Resort to the 50:50 philosophy in sharing such property would clearly be a naked affront to the justice of the situation in those circumstances,” the Court said.

“Our understanding is that it is possible for parties to a marriage to acquire property during the subsistence of a marriage that is not intended to be for the family as a whole,” they said.

Examples of acquiring shares in companies or bonds by spouse may not be for the family benefit but that particular person and therefore such property was not available for sharing.

The Court ordered for the equal sharing of the house and the vehicles in dispute because the wife contributed and the man never challenged her claims. The court also ordered the man to make monthly contributions to the child.

The court said property settlement is always an emotive issue as it invoke bitterness between the parties who once loved each other.
“It is thus always an ominous exercise for the Court to undertake,” the Judges bemoaned.

Court citation – Nkhata v Nkhata- Appeal No. 60 of 2015.

This is an important case that has changed Zambia’s jurisprudence on property settlement after divorce. The old notion that wife and husband share property 50/50 after divorce has been discarded by the Supreme Court. You have to show what you contributed to those properties.

Kalemba March 13, 2025

A 30 year old man of Central Province’s Mumbwa dustrict has been barbecued to near perfection after mistaking the long hours of load shedding for a free pass to acquire illegal riches by attempting to steal Zesco cables from a transformer at Mabele Primary School in Mumbwa.

Winston Ndiya of Menengo village of Chief Mumba must have thought the gods of electricity had taken a nap when he found the transformer sitting quietly, not humming, just like the thousands of Zambians sitting in darkness, waiting for power to return.

Convinced he had outsmarted the system, the braiied human meat pulled out his screwdriver, pliers and misplaced confidence and got to work.

Unfortunately for him, Zesco transformers do not forgive nor forget.

Just as he was about to claim his loot, a bolt of electricity pounced on him like a hungry lion and roasted him in seconds.

Central Province’s police commissioner Charity Munganga said at around 02:00 hours, Mabele Primary School senior teacher Justin Simupande who had been peacefully snoring through yet another salary increase, was rudely awakened by a loud bang outside his house.

Simupande stepped out to investigate and found a badly seasoned Winston squatting near the transformer with his face looking like a failed piece of charcoal baked sweet potato.

At first, Simupande assumed the man was just a drunk who had picked a fight with the ground and lost.

But at sunrise, when the senior teacher realised this was something far worse.

“As he drew closer, he noticed the man’s face was burnt and his clothes were dusty. Initially, he thought the person was a drunkard and left him there.”

“At around 04:00 hours…Simupande alerted his family, who went to check on the person and discovered the extent of his injuries,”
disclosed Munganga.

Zesco security and police officers arrived at the crime scene to find evidence of Ndiya’s unfinished mission and found a neatly folded earth wire, a screwdriver and pliers all sitting next to a man who now looked like a piece of poorly seasoned pork left on a lit brazier.

He was rushed to Mumbwa District Hospital where doctors are currently scraping off the extra crispy parts and trying to restore him to his original shade.

Meanwhile, police officers are also patiently waiting at his bedside, cuffs in hand, ready to make sure his next destination is a jail cell and not another transformer.

By Catherine Pule

Kalemba, March 13, 2025

PRESIDENT Hakainde Hichilema says youths have agreed to amend the constitution in order to allow more women, youths and the differently abled to participate in key leadership roles.

Officiating at this year’s Youth Day celebrations in Mongu yesterday, President Hichilema said youths are the real owners of the country because they are the majority and so no one can dispute what the they say.

“We know the youth are the majority, I’m asking you that your government under the constitutional obligations need to amend the constitution so that we can have more women and youths in parliament, even those that live with disabilities, to do that we need to amend the constitution.”

“Do you agree that we amend the constitution. The owners of the country, the youth have agreed to amend the constitution. Your voices matter, when you say things, we hear and we work on them,” stated the Head of State.

He further discouraged youths from engaging in staged protests against the constitution stating that if they did so then they would be protesting against their own interest.

“Here is my request to you. Keep the peace in this country. Don’t be enticed by someone telling you let’s go in the streets to demonstrate… about the constitution. What is wrong with the constitution amendment to bring more women and youth in parliament? So you will be demonstrating against your own interest,” said President Hichilema.

“Nobody has seen what is contained in the draft constitution. But people want to go in the steeets to use who, to use you, are you going to go in the streets to beat who, to beat your fellow youth to damage property, aikona man, aikona.”

By Catherine Pule

Kalemba, March 13, 2025