Former Zambian president Frederick Chiluba’s ex-wife has reduced her divorce claim from an initial
$2,5-billion dollars to $300-million, a newspaper reported on Thursday.
Vera Tembo, who was divorced last year by Chiluba, has sued her ex-husband in a traditional court after a High Court threw out her earlier claim on the grounds the couple were married under customary law, the privately-owned Post said.
Her previous claim fell just short of Zambia’s gross domestic product for 2000, which stood at
$2,9-billion.
According to World Bank statistics, the average annual income in Zambia is $300 a year.
The case is due to be heard October 9 in a courthouse in the Copperbelt town of Ndola, about 400 kilometres north of Lusaka, the newspaper said.
Tembo has alleged that Chiluba has not shared the property the two acquired during 33 years of marriage, the newspaper said.
In her earlier claim, she had also demanded a share in real estate, 400 head of cattle, three Mercedes Benz cars and other goods that she claims to have left in the state house when she was thrown out, according to a report last month in the Times of Zambia.
Chiluba divorced his wife of 33 years following reports she had an affair with a prominent businessman in Lusaka. – Sapa-AFP