A total of 1,401 divorce cases were granted by the courts in the Eastern Province during the period between January and August this year. This is out of 3,394 divorce cases that were filed in the courts during the same period in 2022.
Chipata District is topping the list with a total of 951 divorce cases filed in the courts, out of which 404 marriages were dissolved while 547 were reconciled.
Petauke District ranks second in the number of divorce cases brought before courts, with 327 of the divorces being granted while 584 were reconciled.
According to the court records, Petauke District had a total of 911 divorce cases captured by the court.
In Katete District that 169 divorces were granted out of 354 cases brought before it, while 185 marriages were saved.
Further, in Lundazi District a total of 351 divorce cases were filed in the court and 108 divorces were granted, while 243 cases were not.
And Mambwe District followed with 253 divorce cases filed, of which 125 marriages were dissolved and 128 saved through reconciliation.
Nyimba District ranks sixth in the number of divorce cases brought before the courts, with 227 divorce cases filed. And while 105 divorces were granted, 122 were not.
Courts in Sinda district granted 98 divorces out of 183 filed divorce cases, while the rest were not granted.
Elsewhere, Chadiza district had 49 divorce cases granted by the court, while 86 were not granted.
Vubwi District was at the bottom of the divorce list in the Eastern Province, with 29 divorce cases taken to the courts of which 16 were granted and 13 were not.
Provincial Local Court Officer, Moses Kaonga said most of the divorce cases were granted as a result of adultery, incidents of Gender Based Violence (GBV) and lack of respect among couples.
He also disclosed that some of the divorce cases were triggered by lack of financial support to spouses and respect among the couples.
The 3,394 divorce cases recorded in Eastern Province involved mainly young couples.
In 2021, Eastern province recorded 4,441 divorce petitions in the courts and topped the list of 22,000 divorce cases recorded countrywide.
This kind of reporting is not helpful at all. So what about these numbers? Have divorce cases gone up or reduced and by what percentage? Oh Zambia, my Zambia we cannot get even small things right.
And why indeed give us stats from only one province? Is it an attempt to paint the province black?
We have a government that doesn’t care about the role of a traditional family. They are pro gay. So this is the end result