Witnesses testify in the UPND Provincial Coordinator for Luapula George Nsonga defilement case

The mother to the 13 year old girl who was allegedly defiled by her uncle, George Nsonga, has told the Mansa Magistrate Court that she failed to talk to her daughter when she met her after receiving information that she had been defiled as she was too emotional.

Salome Kasongo, 37, of Matanda village said this in responses to a question by Senior Public Prosecutor, Susan Chilumba on what she did when she met her daughter at her auntie’s place in Mansa.

This was during the continued trial in which George Nsonga, UPND Provincial Coordinator for Luapula, is facing one count of defilement.

Ms. Kasongo told Magistrate Moses Mulenga that she was at her home in Matanda when she got the news about her child having been defiled.

“Bashi Beja came to my house on March 11, 2022 at around 16:00 hours on a motorcycle to inform me and my husband that my child had been defiled in Mansa. My husband was not home so we followed him to where he was at Kapemba village in Chief Matanda’s Chiefdom,” she said.

Ms. Kasongo said she found her husband crying by the roadside and when she inquired as to why he was crying he said his child had been defiled by his in-law George Nsonga.

“The following day we started off very early and arrived at my sister in-laws place -Mable Tende- at around 04:00 hours where she briefed us on what had allegedly transpired,” she said

And Grace Mwale, 45, a teacher at Chile Community School in Mansa District narrated before the court that she received a report through the Headmistress, Susan Lumbeta about the defilement of her pupil on March 14, 2022.

Ms. Mwale told the court that she gave the police the class register which they wanted as proof that the victim was at the same school in grade three.

The sixth witness Susan Kaunda, 19, of Kalikeka Village told the court that on March 10, 2022 in the morning as she was cleaning the house, the victim came to tell her and showed her how swollen she was on her private part.

In her evidence-in-chief in which she was led by Public Prosecutor, Jane Mkandawire, Ms. Kaunda who is in the keeping of Mable Tende said when she asked the victim why she was swollen, she only told her that she just woke up like that.

“She went to school around 09:00 hours and when she came back around 12:00 hours, she started cleaning dishes but could not finish as she sat down and started crying,” she said.

Ms. Kaunda told the court that she then approached her guardian, Mable Tende who is the aunty to the victim to find out whether she had seen how swollen the girl was.

Ms. Kaunda said that the following day in the morning she saw her guardian Mable Tende, taking the victim to the neighbour’s house.

And a step son to the accused told the court that his dad told him that his mother had taken her cousin who is the victim in this case after he had inquired on the whereabouts of her upon his return from school.

“I asked him why they had gone to the hospital and he said he did not know what some boys had done to the victim,” he said.

In his evidence-in-chief in which he was led by Senior Public Prosecutor Susan Chilumba, the boy said he then left home to go and see his friends and when he returned home in the afternoon, he found one of his young brothers crying.

“When I asked why he was crying, he said he was crying for dad who had been arrested by the police. I asked him further what dad had done to which he responded that dad had slept with the victim. That is how I got devastated and stayed home,” he narrated.

When asked by the State if one would say he was the actual perpetrator trying to implicate the father, he responded that he cannot sleep with the victim because she is his sister.

And when he was cross-examined by defense lawyer, Edward Banda, the witness was asked whether it was his thirteen year old sibling who told him that his father defiled the victim, he responded in the affirmative.

The matter has since been adjourned for continued trial on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.

Particulars of the offense are that on March 9, 2022 in Mansa District, George Nsonga willfully and unlawfully had carnal knowledge of a minor below the age of 16 contrary to Section 138 clause 1 of the Penal Code, Chapter 87 of the Laws of Zambia, as amended by Act No. 15 of 2005 and Act No. 2 of 2011.