‘Prostitute’ jibe defamation case flops
By Charles Musonda
THE Matero Local Court has dismissed a claim for compensation for defamation of character because Hope Kapilya was rightly called a prostitute by Idah Tonga.
Tonga had warned Kapilya that Boas Chanda, the man she was about to get married to, was her husband.
Despite the warning, Kapilya proceeded to tell her family to accept K10,000 cash from Chanda as part payment for the builder to marry her.
Kapilya, 25, of Kabanana Compound sued Tonga, 26, of the same area for calling her a prostitute over Chanda.
She told the court a month before Chanda paid the K10,000 last June, she started receiving phonecalls from Tonga who told her that she was Chanda’s wife and that they had lived together for three years.
Kapilya said one day Chanda followed her to Mandevu where she was selling fruits and she answered Tonga’s phone call to Chanda in which Tonga said that day she would leave their matrimonial home to pave the way for Kapilya since she seemed to be so desperate for the man.
“I told her that Boas Chanda was my husband because he had paid for my marriage to him while she told me that he didn’t pay anything when he married her. After she left home, my husband arranged with some people to take me to the house where he used to live with her [Tonga],” Kapilya said.
She said on July 16 Tonga followed her and fought her after which she was apprehended for assault despite her also losing part of her hair in the fight.
While she was in custody she miscarried Chanda’s pregnancy.
In response, Tonga said she got Kapilya’s number when she phoned Chanda as the two were visiting her grandmother.
Tonga, who got married to Chanda on October 7, 2022 and they do not have a child together, said when she called the number Kapilya answered and introduced herself as Chanda’s wife.
She said when she confronted Chanda he admitted dating Kapilya on grounds that he wanted to know who was responsible for not having a child in their marriage because she [Tonga] had an eight-year-old child and Chanda claimed that he, too, had a child of almost the same age from their previous relationships.
She said later, there were phone calls between her and Kapilya in which the two exchanged ear-shuttering insults over Chanda.
When called as a witness, Chanda disowned Tonga, saying they divorced three months ago after she packed and left their matrimonial home on her own.
He told the court that Kapilya was his current legitimate wife.
In her judgment, Justice Ndhlovu asked Kapilya how many times she wanted Tonga to cry because despite grabbing her man she wanted her to compensate her for rightly calling her a prostitute.
She told Kapilya to enjoy her new marriage to Chanda quietly and that in future, she would reap the fruits of the bad seeds she was sowing by snatching other women’s husbands.
The court advised Tonga to stop following Kapilya and sue Chanda for property settlement.
