WILLFUL ignorance has landed a 34-year old gardener of Lusaka’s Makeni Bonaventure in court for stealing two bags of eagle mealie meal from Shoprite at Cosmopolitan mall.
When entering Shoprite, tills are the first machinery one would notice. However, Best Miyoba claims to have been blinded to their position, hence the reason he did not pay for the powder like substance which is the only ingredient used to cook the country’s staple food nshima.
As a result of his actions Miyoba earned himself a charge of theft which he denied before magistrate Allan Kangwa.
It is alleged that Miyoba on January 15, 2024 stole two 25kg bags of Eagle (roller) mealie meal produced by the Zambia National Service (ZNS) valued at K378.80, belonging to ShopRite Zambia Limited.
According to Eunice Malama a control manager at the said store, around 10: 25 hours she witnessed Miyoba laying trouble for himself when he helped himself with the cheap bags of mealie meal like he was weeding out crab grass in a tomato bed, without making payment.
She said she alerted security personnel as Miyoba did not pass through the till to pay for the treasured commodity whose pricing by other millers is equivalent to paying for the first rate female players across the world Racheal Kundananji and Barbara Banda.
“The moment I stepped out, I found the suspect already with security supervisor, Mr Soko. The supervisor asked for a receipt which the suspect failed to produce. He claimed that he thought that the tills were outside,”said Malama.
“We later informed the Fresh fruits manager before the suspect was taken to Embassy Police for further investigations.”
During cross examination instead of challenging the testimony of the witness, Miyoba explained that he asked the guard to direct him to the tills so that he could pay for the bags of mealie but he declined.
“I told them am a visitor and that I have the money which I wanted to pay at the till,” Miyoba explained.
The explanation made Magistrate Kangwa to question how many children the greens keeper had to which he mentioned that he had three.
Magistrate Kangwa advised Miyoba to enroll his children in school so that “ the problem does not extend to them.”
However, Miyoba insisted that he wanted to pay for the grain powder so that he could proceed to his home in Gwembe, but ignorance did not excuse him as he claimed security personnel rejected the money and dragged him to the police station.
And Borniface Soko a security guard at Shoprite cosmopolitan mall said Miyoba stepped out of the store with bags of mealie meal and when he asked him for the receipt he failed to produce it.
“The customer posed a bit before he made exit and I pretended as if I did not see him. I saw the customer leaving the shop striding and headed towards Pep stores. I stopped him and took him back to the store and asked for a receipt but he failed to present one,”said Soko.
“CCTV crew arrived at the scene and the matter was reported to police.”
Trial continues on March 14.
By Mwaka Ndawa
Kalemba March 7, 2024.
