A NDOLA couple was sentenced to pay K500 in damages to a 68-year-old woman after she claimed that she had cursed the couple’s wife into becoming infertile.
According to Maggie Butemwe and Gilbert Mfuni, Esiya Bwalya handed Maggie charms, which she allegedly consumed with an axe, causing her to become infertile.
Bwalya subsequently filed a lawsuit against the couple, saying that the allegation that she was a witch had upset the community.
Bwalya testified in front of the Kabushi Local Court that she was accused by Maggie and her husband of making her dig charms, which she allegedly drank with porridge for four days in 2013 in an effort to help her bare children but instead rendered her barren.
A NDOLA couple was sentenced to pay K500 in damages to a 68-year-old woman after she claimed that she had cursed the couple’s wife into becoming infertile.
According to Maggie Butemwe and Gilbert Mfuni, Esiya Bwalya handed Maggie charms, which she allegedly consumed with an axe, causing her to become infertile.
Bwalya subsequently filed a lawsuit against the couple, saying that the allegation that she was a witch had upset the community.
Bwalya testified in front of the Kabushi Local Court that she was accused by Maggie and her husband of making her dig charms, which she allegedly drank with porridge for four days in 2013 in an effort to help her bare children but instead rendered her barren.
Bwalya stated that she overheard an argument between Maggie and her husband outside on December 5th, 2013, about 23:30.
She claimed that when the couple knocked on her home later, she invited them inside but they refused.
“When I asked them why they had come, her husband accused me of telling his wife to dig charms which caused her to become barren in 2013,” she saidw
She testified before the court that the couple also claimed they had visited several witch doctors, who had shown her to be a witch.
However, Butemwe claimed in court that Bwalya questioned her in 2013 and asked why she didn’t have children.
Maggie said in court that Bwalya had instructed her to acquire a tree, chop it up, mix it with porridge, and drink for four days while wielding an axe.
Maggie got barren after that.
“When I became barren, I went to a witch doctor with my parents and I was asked by the witch doctor if I ever went to a woman who gave me charms. The witch doctor then charged us K1,200, but we failed to pay and so I instead started going for prayers,” she said.
Gilbert, her husband, testified in court that he was astonished to discover evidence that his wife had been eating with an axe in 2013.
He testified in court that when he inquired about it, his wife informed him that the family planning pills had been changed.
“In 2014, my wife went to a witch doctor and he told her she was given charms by some woman. We later went to a pastor who said the same thing,” he said.
In judgement, the court was convinced that Butemwe accepted the claim of having accused Bwalya of having bewitched her.
The court ordered the couple to each pay K250 to Bwalya by January 19th, 2023 at once
“The issue was also reported to the chairperson where the defendant agreed that they confronted the plaintiff over the medicine she gave her in 2013”.
