By LUCY PHIRI
A POPULAR media personality and businessman, Jimmy Kumwenda, also known as Pastor Jimmy K has narrated in the Lusaka magistrate court how two women swindled him out of K300, 000.
This is in a matter in which Walyuma Makwele, 47, and Lizzy Kapito, 60, both businesswomen of Lusaka pleaded not guilty to one count of obtaining money by false pretences, one count of forgery and one count of uttering false documents.
Mr Kumwenda told the court that it was July 7, 2021 when he got involved with a businesswoman namely Wally who told him she was a procurement officer at Mikalile Lodge in Chamba Valley.
He testified that the lady told him she was getting a tender to supply hotel amenities such as shower gels, lotion, soaps among others.
“I and my business partner got interested in the business deal after giving us a good explanation. She said to meet the demand of the order the business input was K300, 000 and the income was K537, 000. “We got interested and agreed to the terms, everything was processed and date stamps of Mika Lodge were issued,” he said.
He said he then requested that they should have a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) agreement between him, his business partner and Makwele.
“We then told her to give us a week to organise the money, as we had opened a WhatsApp group for easier communication. And when the money was ready we informed her that the money was ready and she gave us a number that we should contact Lizzy Kapito and made all payments,” he said. Mr Kumwenda narrated how they were offered receipts without letterheads after making both cash and bank transactions.
“We questioned her receipts and decided to write our own receipt of payments where she signed, and after that we asked how the goods were going to be delivered She said she had a truck as she had been supplying hotel amenities for a longtime,” he said.
He told the court that after the lady promised them to deliver the goods, they waited for a while and did not see any progress. He said it was excuse after excuse when they tried to contact them.
“We decided to contact Mr Mikalile, the owner of Mika Lodge who informed us that Ms Makwela was no longer their employee as she was fired under similar circumstances that’s when we realised that we were duped,” he said. It is alleged in count one that on July 4, 2021 in Lusaka, Makwele did forge a document namely Mika Lodge Limited purchase order number 860. Trial continues on May 27.
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