Court rejects debt claim
Written by Millennium on April 7, 2019
MUTINTA MULAYE writes
@SunZambian
A man received a shock of his life when the person he claimed borrowed money from him denied it and the local court also threw out his claims because there was no evidence to support it.
Harrison Ziwa, 30, of Lusaka’s Kalikiliki Township sued Jackson Mwale, 26, of Bauleni Compound in the Boma Local Court claiming the latter borrowed K1000 from him in February last year but has failed to pay back.
But senior presiding magistrate Mpundu Mwape dismissed the case because there was no sufficient evidence the defendant borrowed money from Mr Ziwa.
Mr Ziwa told court that Mr Mwale borrowed a K1, 000 from him in February last year with a promise to repay it after his boss gave him money for business but had to date failed to refund it.
“He stopped answering my calls and started telling people he would never pay me back,” Mr Ziwa said.
Mr Ziwa said Mr Mwale only gave him a K100 and his mobile phone to hold as surety when he met him in the street.
“He reported me to the police that I grabbed his phone and a K1, 200 from him. The police summoned me but I explained what exactly happened to them and they advised me to bring him to court,” Mr Ziwa said.
Mr Mwale, in his defence, told court that he never borrowed any money from Mr Ziwa and that the only money he got from him was gambling which they played together.
He said that Mr Ziwa was a gambler like him and that they sometimes exchanged monies for purposes of gambling which they sometimes won or lost.
“Every time he lost a game of cards he would come to me and give me some money so that we play together. We sometimes won money and sometimes we lost,” Mr Mwale said.
“He usually gave me money before games and we won a lot of times. One time he gave me almost K1, 500 but we lost. The next day he gave me a K500 and we again lost,” he said.
Mr Mwale said, “I never asked him for the money but he gave it to me on his own. I don’t know why he wants me to pay it back because I never borrowed it.”