WHEN IN-LAWS LOCK HORNS

A LUSAKA man has sued his in-law for insulting him without giving any reason.
This is a case before Chelstone local court presiding magistrate Kennedy Mwansa Mutale in a matter in which Paul Phiri, 57, a businessman of Ngombe Township, sued his daughter’s mother-in-law, Justina Mtonga, 53, of the same area for insulting him.

He told the court that on the April 11, 2019, his in-law came in his yard with her children and started insulting him and his wife.
“Even her son insults me, too, and this is not the first time for her to insult me. It started in 2017. I had even summoned them and at one point her son, who married my daughter, wanted to hit me with a shovel and the matter was taken to the police station,” he said.

“They asked for forgiveness and I forgave them and withdrew everything, but they still continued to insult me and my wife,” Mr Phiri said.
But Mtonga denied insulting him saying she only exchanged words with another neighbour who wanted to remove the flowers she had planted as a demarcation.
She said she had used the flowers as a boundary to separate her homestead and that of her neighbour because he used to insult her.
“I insulted him back. it’s not like I was insulting my in-law,” she said.

A witness, however, testified that he was present whenever Mtonga started insulting Mr Phiri.
He said he had even witnessed the incident in which Mtonga’s son almost hit Mr Phiri with a shovel.
The court adjourned the case to May 6, 2019 for continued hearing.