A MAN in his seventies has withdrawn his appeal to the Supreme Court against his conviction of defilement and the 15-year-sentence slapped on him by the Lusaka High Court for sexually molesting and impreganting his 14-year-old granddaughter.
James Mwale of Misisi Township in Lusaka on Tuesday withdrew his appeal to the Supreme Court bench consisting of Deputy Chief Justice Ireen Mambilima and Supreme Court justices Lombe Chibesakunda and Muyinda Wanki who sat in Ndola.
Mwale was convicted for defilement and given a 15-year sentence by the Lusaka High Court in 2009.
Facts of the case were that Mwale, between June 1, 2006 and July 31, 2007, in Lusaka had sex with his teenage granddaughter.
He was tried in the Lusaka magistrates’ court and convicted of the offence after which he was referred to the Lusaka High Court for sentencing.
It was on record that Mwale had informed the magistrate court that he had slept with his granddaughter because it was in his tradition, as a Tumbuka of Lundazi to have sex with grandchildren as a way to prepare them for marriage.
His wife, the victim’s grandmother also said it was in their tradition to surrender girls to their elders as a way to prepare them for marriage.
The girl was at the time living with her grandparents after they collected her from Lundazi when her parents died.
She was in Grade six at the time of the defilement and she eventually gave birth to a baby boy.
When the appeal came up on Tuesday, his lawyer, principal Legal Aid counsel, Nzovwa Chomba said he had instructions from his client to withdraw the appeal.
Ms Justice Mambilima said it was good for Mwale that he had decided to withdraw the appeal because her bench could have revised the sentence to give him stiffer punishment.
Meanwhile, the Chipata magistrate court has acquitted former acting Chipata Town Clerk Ronald Daka and two other senior council employees of five counts of theft by servant including money laundering charges.
The three senior employees were arrested by the Drug Enforcement Commission in 2003 for allegedly abusing more than K100 million provided by the Zambia Social Investment Funds and the UNICEF.
[ Times of Zambia ]
Yangu tata
I have never heard of such a tradition. Surely some traditions should be abolished. My cousins in southern province are slowly doing away with polygamy though other die-hard “Tonga Bulls” are still in the practice.
Am tumbuka from lundazi,but this is my first time hearing of such a tradition.
iwe #2 atonga anyenga nbuzi manje niba nyele bad!!!
Surely some traditions are a curse on our people and should be abolished. Ba Mwale ‘preparing them for marriage’ does not mean eating the fruit between their legs but giving them sound advice!. The Lozi’s too need to get rid of a similar tradition as a way to prepare their nieces(instead of graddaughters) for marriage.
Bo JATA!!!! #2 at least polygamy is a contract between cosseting adults and it is still practised in most Arabic countries so Tonga bulls are within their rights to do so. Moreover, polygamy and womanisingareone and the same.
HIM
This tradition does truly exist and I am fully aware of it. If you do not know it, maybe you have missed some of the traditions that you are suppose to learn. However, this is one of the bad traditional practices that should be done away with. At the time that our communities used to do this, they never used to understand that they were actually abusing the child which all well meaning people should be fighting against now. These are the same bad traditional practices that are deeply engraved in some that they are continuously affecting the physical, social, economical and moral development of our children but also the moral fibre upon which our societies are now leaning on. Remember culture is dynamic. I rest my case!
I’m shokodi by this tradition, never heard of it before, or perhaps he misunderstood the “preparing” part of it.
I’m Tumbuka with roots in Magodi, Phikamalaza and Embangweni, but this is definitely a first.
I don’t know which part of Lundazi this man comes from. I have never ever heard of this
tradition since I was born. They were just trying to justify their mischief. Let him rot in Jail.
Takwaba, how do you expect to develop when u have primitive cultures like that? Seems to me the horny old man and his wife made up the story so that he can get away with child rape and incest. Cage the I D I O T and all those sick perverts who rape little children thinking that would clean them from the HIV virus!!! Infact castrate the dirty p r i c k s, as a warning to all perverts.
That explains why the young lass married the oldman at plot nambala chakuti! Akalongozi.. was just preparing his granddaugther and ended up impregnanting her with twins. Now, how can you cage the lundazi old man when the ringleader is showing off with a young wife “granddaugther” all over the planet?
Chapata Chaps enjoy todlers.Even those in 70s will go after the sweet Twenties or thirties ………………..
Chipata Chaps enjoy todlers.Even those in 70s will go after the sweet Twenties or thirties ………………..
kukaputula bukala na makandi
hang the man y should the tax payer money now go to feeding this man fakn villager
Mwebantu sure even if they say walya kake aliye mulandu this is too much.
Maybe that is why Mpezani wants circumcision clinics to curb this abominable act,kansi ni tradition Yaba the thought of it sickens me to the stomach yuck!!!!!!!!disgusting indeed.
“Ms Justice Mambilima said it was good for Mwale that he had decided to withdraw the appeal because her bench could have revised the sentence to give him stiffer punishment”. Justice Mambilima,a stiff punishment would have been a deterrent!!
#5 Zed Patriot you are justifying the actions of the alleged “Tonga Bulls” whom I call Oxens only fit for ploughing. Lozis don’t do their little ones.
Justice Mambilima,should give stiffer punishment to plunders aswell.This man impreginanted a grand do and produced a living thing with her and was given 14yrs. Chiluba stole money meant for medicines in hospitals and people were dieing coz of poor health facilities but is very free. To all my cousins from the east, please abandon this tradition mwe mashilu mwe!! Nimbeba sha muchita ubupuba for you to embrase such a tradition? Shame on you.
“………..Nimbeba shamuchita ubupuba………..” One ZMK, instead of shouting at your cousins, sit them down while you have the kakolwe on the braii stand!!! i will come with pop-corns as an observer on the proceedings
I am a Tumbuka traditionalist of 67 years.This is the first crazy story of an imagined Tumbuka tradition.
The only preparation grand parents do to their grand children is to inform them in graphic details the dos and donts their own mothers and fathers would feel embarassed to discuss with them.They never go beyond this.The man deserves to be caged for life.
HE IS NOT TUMBUKA MWALEZ ARE NOT TUMBUKAZ EVER SINCE WHEN DID MWALE BECAME TUMBUKAZ. HE MUST BE CHEWA
@#22, you sound to be getting close to the issue here.Who gives them the dos and donts? Is it there grandfathers? No wonder this is happening. How can a grandfather tell a granddaughter how to make those moves.That is wrong.That is why this devil was compelled to undress the poor girl and do a demonstration? Hand them over to Alangizi (fellow women).You have to seriously revisit this tradition
ba # 22 you are not a true Tumbuka. These are old traditions that used to happen a long time ago. so you are right, but the fact that you don’t know it, it does not mean that it doesn’t exist. it used to be there but now it must be gone.
Yangu bambuya ngefi mucita efinshi. ukonaula abana ati nintambi