And so, Kapia - short-serving former Deputy Minister of Works, Transport and Communication, Secretary of the Swapo Party Youth League who has been put on leave from his job in that position, and still a Swapo member of the National Assembly despite public statements from party leaders that he would have to leave that post, too - yesterday joined one of the sadder groups of people to congregate weekly in one of the sadder courtrooms of the High Court in Windhoek, to go through the motions of divorce proceedings that he instituted against his teacher wife almost four months ago.

Kapia made a short appearance in the witness box before Acting Judge John Manyarara to tell him why he was asking the court to issue an interim order that is one of the required steps in any divorce case.

He told the court that he and his wife, Julia Kapia, were married at Ondangwa on January 1 1994.

Two children were born from their marriage.

When asked by his lawyer, Zagrys Grobler, to tell the court what had gone wrong in the marriage, Kapia rattled off the grounds of the divorce that he is asking for: his wife no longer showed any interest in their relationship, she was directing "insultments" at him, including "insultments" in the presence of other people, she refused to communicate with him, and she had no serious intention to continue with their marriage, he claims.

For those reasons, he decided to move out of their common house in 2001, he told the court.

In contrast to his previous stint in a witness box in the High Court - when, about two months ago, the then still serving Deputy Minister spent most of two testing days facing cutting questioning over his role in Avid, of which he had been a director, and his involvement in the SSC's investment of N$30 million through Avid - Kapia's time at the witness stand before Acting Judge Manyarara did not even last five minutes.

With that, the Acting Judge granted him a provisional divorce order, which incorporates a settlement agreement that he and his wife had reached when she withdrew her initial opposition to the divorce proceedings.

Mrs Kapia had initially disputed Kapia's claims that appeared to blame her for the marital breakdown.

She in turn accused Kapia of having failed to communicate with her, of having shown no love or affection to her, and of having showed no serious intention to continue with their marriage.

In terms of the settlement agreement, custody of the couple's children will be awarded to Mrs Kapia, with Kapia to pay N$1 400 maintenance for the children each month.

All the furniture in a house in Wanaheda in Windhoek that belongs to Kapia will become Mrs Kapia's, while she will also keep two vehicles and will receive two immovable properties at Ondangwa, the agreement states.

Kapia stays the owner of the house in Wanaheda, as well as a house in Pionierspark.

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