Uncle loses defamation case
Written by Millennium on July 23, 2019
MUTINTA MULAYE writes
@SunZambian
LUSAKA’s Boma Local Court has thrown out a defamation claim in which a man sued his nephew for accusing him of bewitching his father.
Andrew Mwale, of Marapodi Township, sued Alex Chinsungwe of Kabanana Township.
Mwale told senior local court magistrate Silvia Kabunda after the death of his brother-in-law, his sister, Chinsungwe and an aunt of Mr Chinsungwe’s were chosen as administrators.
“My sister called me this same month complaining because she was failing to cooperate with the other administrators. She called Ba Joyce who is the third administrator,” he said.
Mwale told the court he did not know what the two discussed, but after a short time he received a confusing call from Chinsungwe shouting and accusing him of killing his father.
“He told me I had killed his father so that I could inherit his property. He told me my family was poor and accused me of trying to get rich through his late father’s property,” Mwale said.
He said Chinsungwe insulted him a lot, but he [Mwale] was not shocked because Chinsungwe also used to insult his father when he was alive.
“He still insults his father in his death,” Mwale testified.
Chinsungwe denied accusing Mwale of killing his father.
He, however, told the court he told Mwale that people would think he was responsible for his father’s death because of the way he was conducting himself.
“Seven days ago, the third administrator, who is my aunt, called me telling me Andrew [Mwale] and his sister were pressuring her to go to the bank and push for the monies of my dad. My aunt was unwell and she even explained to them but they insisted,” he said.
“I called Andrew to try and talk to him, but he told me ‘katundu yaba tate bako tikali kudyelapo’. So when he said those words that’s when I told him that he would make people think he was the one who had killed my dad. But I did not accuse him of killing my father,” Chinsungwe said.
The court found that there was high a probability that Mr Chinsungwe had accused Mwale of killing his father because he was bitter.
However, the claim was dismissed because there was no recorded or visible evidence.
