‘Deceitful’ bricklayer loses K4,000 claim in court
Written by Millennium on May 15, 2019
MUTINTA MULAYE writes
THE Boma Local Court has dismissed a case in which a bricklayer sued a woman for failing to pay him K4, 000 after it discovered that he did shoddy works.
Godfrey Bwalya, 47, sued Evelyn Nayame of Chainda after he carried some repairs works and she failed to pay the remaining K4, 000.
Bwalya told Senior Local Court Magistrate Gaston Kalala that he met Ms Nayame through her brother who is his friend.
“She has a house in Obama which she wanted to put on rent so she wanted some repairs to be done. I went to see the house with her brother who gave me her number and I started communicating with her,” Mr Bwalya said.
He then said Ms Nayame came from the Copperbelt so that they could discuss the costs to be met for skimming and painting.
He said that he gave her the list of materials that would be needed which amounted to K8, 000.
“Labour was K8, 000, materials K8, 000. She told me to look for materials and start working and she would pay me when she got back from Botswana,
“ When we started working we saw that skimming wouldn’t work because of the blocks used and the alternative was to plaster which would cost more,” Bwalya explained.
Ms Nayame then sent K3, 000 which was not enough because the materials used were bought on credit and so more money would be needed.
“She came back and paid K2, 000 which wasn’t enough so we went in town and she withdrew and gave me K3, 000. So plus the K3, 000 she sent at first, it all amounted to K8, 000. She again paid K4, 000 as a down payment for labour and promised,” Mr Bwalya said.
He said then there was communication breakdown for some time and after he managed to reach her in Obama she refused to pay because he had not done a good job.
Ms Nayame told the court that Bwalya, did a poor job on her house.
“I went back to Botswana but I used to call my caretaker to inquire. Even after I sent money for materials, he told me Mr Bwalya had not bought materials. I started getting worried.
I came to check and found there was no much progress,” Ms Nayame said.
She also said when she checked the prices of paint, there were much less than the amounts he was telling her and even the painting job was poorly done.
Upon visiting the house, the court found that painting was a shodd0dy job, skirting was not up to standard and there was no skimming done.
The court also found that the prices of paint were inflated and there was therefore likelihood that prices of other things were also exaggerated by Bwalya and dismissed the claim dismissed.