When they go to weddings, they put on tailored matching outfits
Accustomed to prosecuting cases at the magistrate court, a police prosecutor, Basimane Billy, found himself in the dock at a customary court on Tuesday this week, trying to argue his way out of a half million pula marriage wrecking lawsuit.
Billy, a police officer based at Sehithwa Police Station in the North West district, is being accused of not only having an affair and sleeping with Mushanana Shachilyanga’s wife, but practically cohabiting with her in Maun while the husband is at his work station in Kasane.
This week, before Maun Customary Court, Shachilyanga (42) produced a t-shirt and Billy’s passport, which he said he obtained from his wife’s bedroom as proof that Billy has moved in to wreck his 9-year marriage to Onalenna Shachilyanga.
“These items show that he is literally staying in my house. He sleeps in my bed, my blankets and even drives the car that I bought for my wife,” Shachilyanga told the court.
Shachilyanga further alleged that the two lovebirds were flaunting the illicit affair so much that even his wife, Onalenna Shachilyanga, can drive her nyatsi’s (boyfriend) car to their family gathering without shame.
“She used his car to go to a relative’s funeral while he used her car to travel to Francistown,” said Shachilyanga as he narrated to the court how the affair has broken his heart and rocked his marriage.
The devastated man also produced a photograph of the two alleged lovebirds, which he said was snapped while they were enjoying drinks with his wife’s cousin and publicly displaying their affection for each other.
“The children have told me that a man has moved into our house and every time I want to come home my wife gives excuses why she does not want me to visit anymore. When they go to weddings, they put on tailored matching outfits,” explained Shachilyanga and added that, “I am saying these things with a broken heart, I have lost my dignity as a married man.”
His wife was not there to confirm nor deny the affair, but her cousin, Choolinga Banda (29), reiterated the allegations and said in fact she has witnessed Billy and Onalenna sleep in the same bedroom at her matrimonial house.
“She introduced him to me as her boyfriend and I was with them when they went to collect their matching attires from the tailor. We hang out together and they openly call each other babe,” Banda explained from the witness seat.
The cousin corroborated Shachilyanga’s evidence including the two alleged lovers being in a motshelo together, exchanging cars, wearing matching outfits and sharing the master bedroom.
She further alleged that at some point Billy actually proposed love to her, but she said she turned him down.
Billy, who laughed the whole story off, asked Shachilyanga why he would accuse him of an affair with his wife when he never caught him at his house.
He further accused Sachilyanga of sending his children to steal his items from his car so he can claim he found them in his house and use them as exhibits in court.
The matter is to return to court at a date yet to be communicated when the wife would be summoned and a statement from the married couple’s children would be presented by a social worker.