Maravi

wife batterer justifies his actions

wife batterer justifies his actions
By Masuzyo Chakwe
Saturday April 21, 2007 [04:00]

The Lusaka man who battered his wife for refusing to disclose her cellphone pin number has disclosed that he was forced to do so because she was cheating on him. Luckson Musonda Bemba, in a walk-in interview on Thursday said he decided to speak out on the matter because he wanted to clear the story about the differences with his wife Manda. He even exposed the text messages that his wife Musonda Manda was exchanging with her 'lover'.

Bemba, a 33-year-old architect said: "My wife went to the extent of telling her lover to help us have a baby girl. I am not mad, I’m straightforward, she forced me to do that but I have forgiven her and she is still the mother of my children and we have to get together and bury our differences. The world is calling me names and I am being tormented."

Bemba, of Lusaka’s Kabwata township, said the messages he found in her phone would enrage anybody.

"I am not barbaric, I’m not an animal. I uphold Christian values. I have stayed with my wife for more than seven years and we had three children, one passed away. I want to clear myself for hitting the wife I love so much," he said.

Some of the messages from the alleged 'lover' to Manda read:
"I will come over but I won't hold you in case he find us. I will call you, I can’t just leave to talk to you, we are having a family meeting, it’s mum’s memorial and tombstone, I have missed you and thanks for the sweet kiss."

And Manda would write back in several SMSs: "Baby I don't want to be a bother to you but you sounded cold gee! Am scared. I felt the body language when we walked together yesterday, I felt the heat, didn't you my darling? Baby I know you are busy but please sms me back. My love am now on my way home, will I see you when you come on

Monday? When was the last time you were kissed passionately? I have really missed you my darling, thoughts of you run through my head, sleep well my love, I didn’t finish the sms, sorry shame my baby, wish I was there to hold your hand. I need you to father a baby girl for us my darling, just kidding. Goodnight and sms back.”

Bemba said it all started when ‘a good Samaritan’ asked him if he had ever passed through his wife’s work place.

“Someone from our area told me to investigate the movements of my wife because there was someone who used to drop her and pick her from her work place,” Bemba said. “This man confronted me and told me a man had been moving about with my wife and they see her. They hold each other and they drive away.”

Bemba said he became suspicious because sometimes when he would go to pick his wife from work, she would sulk.

“She couldn’t talk to me so I became suspicious and said let me also start my investigations. So my investigations started with the phone. On Sunday, I picked up her phone. She had put it on my drawing board when I was doing the drawings, so I picked it up because I wanted to check the messages and that’s when I found there was a security code for the messages. I asked her for the security code but she refused and because she was scared, she ran away from home. I didn’t chase her,” Bemba said. “On Tuesday she called me, she wanted a card for the child and I went to pick her so we could go home.

I asked her politely I told her ‘you are my wife I love you so much and just tell me whatever is inside the phone and I won’t hurt you then we will bury everything’. She refused and this is how it went to that extent of dragging each other into the car and I beat her until she told me and we managed to open the message box. I took her to an unfinished house where I also beat her.”

Bemba said when they read the messages together, she told him the name of the boyfriend.

“She agreed to everything and that’s how I got upset and beat her but I forgave her because she told me finally after everything happened. I then took her to my mother and I left her there. I went to look for a charger to charge my phone so that I could show my mother the messages but when I came back, I found her relatives had picked her and took her to the police and hospital. I am getting surprised that this thing is not ending. I see it in the paper every day,” Bemba complained.

He said he decided to speak out so he could clear his conscience because it was affecting his work as people were getting suspicious.

“They think I am an animal. I respect Christian values,” said Bemba.

posted by MrK @ 4:44 AM