A 25-year-old man of Sumpa village in chief Tungati area on Thursday narrated to the Luwingu magistrates court, why he inserted hot firewood in his wife’s private parts.

Appearing before magistrate Misozi Banda was Kaswe Sumpa of Sumpa village in chief Tungati’s area in Luwingu district the Northern Province.

Sumpa said he decided to punish his wife Prisca Katongo, 28, of the same village after he found her committing adultery in a hut which they use as a kitchen.

Sumpa said he found his wife having sex with a man he did not identify. He said after seeing that, he called for help but the man ran into a nearby bush, leaving his wife behind.

He said he immediately took the hot firewood and inserted it into her as a punishment.

The matter has since been adjourned to March 23 for judgment and Sumpa is still remanded in custody.

And Zambia Health Education and Communications Trust (ZHECT) Director Chilufya Mwaba-Phiri has attributed the rising cases of adultery in marriages to the Zambian culture which does not prepare married couples to discuss sexual issues with their partners.

In an interview on Wednesday, Mwaba-Phiri said there was need for couples to resolve issues concerning sex within their homes.

“Our culture does not prepare us to discuss sexual issues with our partners but people decide to talk to other people and sometimes even having sex outside their marriages,” Mwaba-Phiri said.

Mwaba-Phiri said men who find their wives committing adultery must learn to deal with the situations and not resort to suicide.

Mwaba-Phiri also said it was sad that society only wanted people to accept men’s adulterous activities and not the other way round.

“We need to start making changes to this. We need to learn to talk about these issues, we cannot be hiding in this issue of culture, we need to start changing things,” she said.

She said as long as this culture was allowed to continue, there would be no improvement from an aspect of HIV and AIDS.

“People need to be responsible and not only think of themselves but also others especially countries that support us with funds for the fight against HIV and AIDS, what kind of a Christian nation are we?” Mwaba-Phiri wondered.

“We must be people of integrity and not just talking about something and doing the opposite, that is why even the outside world will not take us seriously,” she said.

And ministry of health permanent secretary Dr Velepi Mtonga has said a study that was conducted in Lusaka found that 11 per cent of women and 22 per cent of men had more than one regular partner.

During the launch of the Love Stories television series at Ster-kinekor on Wednesday, Dr Mtonga said further qualitative research also indicates that Multiple and Concurrent sexual Partnership (MCP) was a widespread social phenomenon associated with low risk perception in Zambia.

Meanwhile, during the same function Zambia Center for Communication Programmes (ZCCP) executive director Grace Chipanta said the series were based on the situations in different countries in the southern Africa region.

Chipanta said the Zambian film was called When the Music Stops and each of the other ten country films had a different title.

“The series will start showing on our national broadcaster Zambia National Broadcasting Corporation (ZNBC) from Monday March 15 at 21:00 hours and it will go on for the next 10 weeks,” said Chipanta.