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MBABANE – A teacher from Ivory Coast’s alleged string of affairs, including with his pupils, has resulted in his wife, who is a lawyer, instituting divorce proceedings against him.

Maxime Zago Zahui’s wife of six years, Bonisile Zahui (nee Lukhele) of Nkiliji, officially filed for divorce, citing the teacher’s alleged relationships with a number of women including girls he teaches at his place of employment.

Zahui is accused of committing adultery and further fathering a child outside of his marriage with Lukhele, who claims the particulars of the women Zahui purportedly cheated with are unknown to her.

“The defendant (Zahui) has committed adultery and a child has been born from a mother whose particulars are unknown to the plaintiff (Lukhele). The defendant even went to the extent of committing adultery with his pupils as he is a teacher in one of the private schools in Mahlanya,” read the divorce application by Lukhele.

Suspicion

In her application, she further cited reasonable suspicion to believe her husband had also had an affair with a Vilane lady from Ngculwini and a Kunene woman who lived around Mbabane.

Worth noting is that the veracity of these allegations is yet to be tested in a court of law and the defendant is yet to respond to the divorce application.

According to Lukhele, the numerous adulterous relationships allegedly committed by Zahui were with the sole intention of ending their union. She further said since July, this year they had not been living as a married couple.

“In the circumstances, the marriage between the parties herein has irretrievably broken down and there are no reasonable prospects of a restoration of a normal marriage between them, because of the defendant’s adulterous relationships and desertion,” read in part Lukhele’s application.

The couple is married in community of property and there are no children born of the parties.

According to Lukhele, the marriage broke down after Zahui moved out of their home and claimed he wanted out of their marriage.

Custom

Meanwhile, previously, one Samuel Tsabedze wanted the High Court to declare the Eswatini Law and Custom marriage between him and Alice Hlophe to have been dissolved.

In his founding affidavit, Tsabedze submitted that their marriage was dissolved by order of the chief and bandlancane of Nyakatfo area on March 14, 2020. According to Tsabedze, they established their matrimonial home at Nhlambeni where they lived together as husband and wife.

“Before we got married, she had misrepresented to me that she had only one child from a previous relationship. I discovered in the year 2014 that actually she had two children from different fathers,” submitted Tsabedze.

He told the court that had he known that she had two children, he would not have married her.

Tsabedze claimed that after he discovered that his wife had a second child, she allegedly avoided discussing the issue with him by leaving home early and coming back home very late, often in a questionable state of sobriety. The applicant (Tsabedze) averred that on the rare occasion when he was able to talk to her, she would be very abusive and storm out of the house.

He said he reported the issue formally to his family and a meeting between their families was arranged. The registrar of births, marriages and Deaths has been cited as the second respondent in the matter.

These are allegations contained in an affidavit whose veracity is still to be tested in court and the respondent is yet to file her papers in the event she is disputing the allegations. According to Tsabedze, his wife’s family accepted responsibility for concealing the second child and also apologised for her wayward behaviour.

He narrated that his family then reported the issue at Nyakatfo Umphakatsi under Chief Jubiphathi and a meeting was arranged thereat between the families.

Meeting

Tsabedze recounted that at the meeting, the first respondent, her father, sister and her uncle, were present and he was accompanied by his sister and ton brothers.

“At first, she pretended like all was well between us. It was then pointed out to her that we have not lived together since 2014 and that she was now cohabitating with another man and was living as husband and wife with a Mr Hillary of Lavumisa Police Station,” contended the applicant.

He submitted that at the end, both families agreed that the marriage between the parties had come to an end.